Wintergirls Quotes:

You’re not dead, but you’re not alive, either. You’re a wintergirl.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: "Wintergirls". Book by Laurie Halse Anderson, 2009.

topic: Alive, Wintergirls

We turned us into wintergirls, and when she tried to leave, I pulled her back into the snow because I was afraid to be alone.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2009). “Wintergirls”, p.78, Penguin

topic: Snow, Gingerbread, Wintergirls

I won the wintergirl trip over the border into dangerland.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2014). “Wintergirls”, p.181, Scholastic UK

topic: Borders, Wintergirls

I want to go to sleep and not wake up, but I don't want to die. I want to eat like a normal person eats, but I need to see my bones or I will hate myself even more and I might cut my heart out or take every pill that was ever made.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2009). “Wintergirls”, p.154, Penguin

topic: Hate, Heart, Sleep, Hate Myself, Going To Sleep

We held hands when we walked down the gingerbread path into the forest, blood dripping from our fingers. We danced with witches and kissed monsters. We turned us into wintergirls, when she tried to leave, I pulled her back into the snow because I was afraid to be alone.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2009). “Wintergirls”, p.78, Penguin

topic: Blood, Hands, Snow, Dripping, Wintergirls

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

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2009). “Wintergirls”, p.208, Penguin

topic: Self Esteem, Mirrors, Laughing, Wintergirls

Cutting pain was a different flavor of hurt. It made it easier not to think about having my body and my family and my life stolen, made it easier not to care... -Wintergirls

- Laurie Halse Anderson

topic: Hurt, Pain, Cutting, Wintergirls, Emotional Wounds

I am beginning to measure myself in strength, not pounds. Sometimes in smiles.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2014). “Wintergirls”, p.230, Scholastic UK

topic: Self Esteem, Inspiration, Pounds, Wintergirls, Boost Self Confidence

I lift my arm out of the water. It's a log. Put it back under and it blows up even bigger. People see the log and call it a twig. They yell at me because I can't see what they see. Nobody can explain to me why my eyes work different than theirs. Nobody can make it stop.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2009). “Wintergirls”, p.150, Penguin

topic: Eye, Blow, People, Wintergirls

Why? You want to know why? Step into a tanning booth and fry yourself for two or three days. After your skin bubbles and peels off, roll in coarse salt, then pull on long underwear woven from spun glass and razor wire. Over that goes your regular clothes, as long as they are tight.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2009). “Wintergirls”, p.124, Penguin

topic: Glasses, Two, Clothes, Tanning, Wintergirls

So, she tells me, the words dribbling out with the cranberry muffin crumbs, commas dunked in her coffee.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

topic: Coffee, Muffins, Crumbs, Cranberries, Wintergirls

In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

topic: Believe, Ghost, Aspect, Wintergirls

Dead girl walking” the boys say in the halls. “Tell us your secrets” the girls whisper, one toilet to another. "I am that girl. I am the spaces between my thighs, daylight shinning through. I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

topic: Girl, Boys, Space, Wintergirls, Porcelain

I breathe in slowly. Food is life. I exhale, take another breath. Food is life. And that's the problem. When you're alive, people can hurt you. It's easier to crawl into a bone cage or a snowdrift of confusion. It's easier to lock everybody out. But it's a lie.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

topic: Hurt, Lying, Confusion, Wintergirls

Eating was hard. Breathing was hard. Living was hardest.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2014). “Wintergirls”, p.232, Scholastic UK

topic: Breathing, Eating, Hardest, Wintergirls

Who wants to recover? It took me years to get that tiny. I wasn't sick; I was strong.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2014). “Wintergirls”, p.33, Scholastic UK

topic: Strong, Years, Sick, Wintergirls

I believe that you've created a metaphorical universe in which you can express your darkest fears. In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves, and sometimes we do such a good job, we lose track of reality.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

topic: Jobs, Believe, Reality, Wintergirls

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

topic: Drinking, Cutting, Sisterhood, Wintergirls, Cutting Myself

For one moment we are not failed tests and broken condoms and cheating on essays; we are crayons and lunch boxes and swinging so high our sneakers punch holes in the clouds.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2009). “Wintergirls”, p.19, Penguin

topic: Cheating, Clouds, Sneakers, Wintergirls

What do I want? The answer to that question does not exist.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2014). “Wintergirls”, p.92, Scholastic UK

topic: Doe, Answers, Want, Wintergirls

I wish I had cancer. I will burn in hell for that, but it's true.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2014). “Wintergirls”, p.32, Scholastic UK

topic: Cancer, Anorexia, Wish, Wintergirls

I inscribe three lines, hush hush hush, into my skin. Ghosts trickle out.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2014). “Wintergirls”, p.60, Scholastic UK

topic: Skins, Lines, Three, Wintergirls, Hush Hush

Here stands a girl clutching a knife. There is grease on the stove, blood in the air, and angry words piled in the corners. We are trained not to see it, not to see any of it. . . . Someone just ripped off my eyelids.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2014). “The Impossible Knife of Memory”, p.298, Penguin

topic: Girl, Air, Blood, Wintergirls, Angry Words

I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.

- Laurie Halse Anderson

source: Laurie Halse Anderson (2009). “Wintergirls”, p.21, Penguin

topic: Space, Shining, Daylight, Wintergirls, Thighs