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“I am beginning to measure myself in strength, not pounds. Sometimes in smiles.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Self Esteem #Inspiration #Pounds
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“Write about the emotions you fear the most.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Writing #Emotion
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“You have to know what you stand for, not just what you stand against.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
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“There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn't matter anymore.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Self Esteem #Mirrors #Laughing
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“I don't just use yarn from a store. I buy old sweaters from consignment shops. The older the better, and unravel them. There are countries of women in this scarf/shawl/blanket. Soon it will be big enough to keep me warm.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Country #Yarn #Sweaters
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“I am angry that I starved my brain and that I sat shivering in my bed at night instead of dancing or reading poetry or eating ice cream or kissing a boy...”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Reading #Recovery #Kissing
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“Art without emotion its like chocolate cake without sugar. It makes you gag.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Art #Creativity #Cake
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“In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Believe #Ghost #Aspect
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“A scar is a sign of strength. . .the sign of a survivor.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Survivor #Scar
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“Why not spend that time on art: painting, sculpting, charcoal, pastel, oils? Are words or numbers more important than images? Who decides this? Does algebra move you to tears? Can plural possessives express the feelings in your heart? If you don't learn art now, you will never learn to breathe!”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Art #Moving #Oil
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“It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Lying #Communication #Feelings
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“I wanted to pull down a book, open it proper, and gobble up page after page”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Book #Pages #Wanted
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“I need a new friend. I need a friend, period. Not a true friend, nothing close or share clothes or sleepover giggle giggle yak yak. Just a pseudo-friend, disposable friend. Friend as accessory. Just so I don't feel or look so stupid.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#True Friend #Stupid #Clothes
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“Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Children #Father #Ignorance
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“I failed eating, failed drinking, failed not cutting myself into shreds. Failed friendship. Failed sisterhood and daughterhood. Failed mirrors and scales and phone calls. Good thing I'm stable.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Drinking #Cutting #Sisterhood
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“When life sucks, read. They can't yell at you for that. And if they do, then you can ignore them.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Life Sucks
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“I picked up one of the books and flipped through it. Don't get me wrong, I like reading. But some books should come with warning labels: Caution: contains characters and plots guaranteed to induce sleepiness. Do not attempt to operate heavy machinery after ingesting more than one chapter. Has been known to cause blindness, seizures and a terminal loathing of literature. Should only be taken under the supervision of a highly trained English teacher. Preferably one who grades on the curve.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Teacher #Book #Taken
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“You were born with the seeds of your talent, the ability to observe the world around you and weave piece of it into a story. I believe that most -- if not all -- people are born with these seeds. What separates the writers from the non-writers is that the writers actually sit down and, you know... write.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Believe #Writing #People
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“If I had lady-spider legs, I would weave a sky where the stars lined up. Matresses would be tied down tight to their trucks, bodies would never crash through windshields. The moon would rise above the wine-dark sea and give babies only to maidens and musicians who had prayed long and hard. Lost girls wouldn't need compasses or maps. They would find gingerbread paths to lead them out of the forest and home again. They would never sleep in silver boxes with white velvet sheets, not until they were wrinkled-paper grandmas and ready for the trip.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Girl #Baby #Stars
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“School libraries are the foundations of our culture – not luxuries.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#School #Luxury #Library
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“I knit the afternoon away. I knit reasons for Elijah to come back. I knit apologies for Emma. I knit angry knots and slipped stitches for every mistake I ever made, and I knit wet, swollen stitches that look awful. I knit the sun down.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Mistake #Apology #Stitches
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“When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Inspirational #Death #People
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“If I ever form a clan, we'll be the anti-cheerleaders and walk under the bleacher forming mild acts of mayhem.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Anarchy #Cheerleader #Clans
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“This is wonderful, wonderful! Be the bird. You are the bird. Sacrifice yourself to abandoned family values....”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Sacrifice #Bird #Wonderful
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“Mr. Freeman: You are getting better at this, but it's not good enough. This looks like a tree,but it is an average, ordinary, everyday, boring tree. Breathe life into it. Make it bend - trees are flexible, so they don't snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch - perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Average #Perfect #Interesting
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“I have survived. I am here. Confused, screwed up, but here. So, how can I find my way? Is there a chain saw of the soul, an ax I can take to my memories or fears?”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Truth #Memories #Confused
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“Sometimes being an adult means doing the right thing, even if it's not what you want.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Mean #Adults #Want
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“I don’t know what I’m doing in the next five minutes and she has the next ten years figured out. I’ll worry about making it out of ninth grade alive. Then I’ll think about a career path.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Thinking #Years #Careers
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“I look at my homely sketch. It doesn't need anything. Even through the river in my eyes I can see that. It isn't perfect and that makes it just right.”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Eye #Rivers #Perfect
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“i was raped, too sexually assaulted in seventh grade, tenth grade. the summer after graduation, at a party i was 16 i was 14 i was 5 and he did it for three years i loved him i didn't even know him he was my best friend's brother, my grandfather, father, mommy's boyfriend, my date, my cousin, my coach i met him for the first time that night and- 4 guys took turns, and- i'm a boy and this happened to me, and- ...i got pregnant i gave up my daughter for adoption... did it happen to you, too?”
-- Laurie Halse Anderson
#Summer #Daughter #Cousin
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