Some of us never cry at al. Like Dally and Two-Bit and Tim Shepard – they forgot how at an early age.
We needed Johnny as much as he needed the gang. And for the same reason.
I had to read Great Expectations for English, and that kid Pip, he reminded me of us – the way he felt marked lousy because he wasn’t a gentleman or anything, and the way that girl kept looking down on him.
The major influence on my writing has been my reading. When I was young, I read everything, including cereal boxes and coffee labels. Reading taught me sentence structure, paragraphing, how to build a chapter. Strangely enough, it never taught me spelling.
He can get drunk in a drag race or dancing without ever getting near alcohol. In our neighborhood it’s rare to find a kid who doesn’t drink once in a while. But Soda never touches a drop – he doesn’t need to. He gets drunk on just plain living. And he understands everybody.
Darry thinks his life is enough without inspecting other people’s.
My characters are fictional. I get ideas from real people, sometimes, but my characters always exist only in my head.
Why can I take it when Dally can’t? And then I knew. Johnny was the only thing Dally loved. And now Johnny was gone.
Johnny was the only thing Dally loved. And now Johnny was gone.
He gets drunk on just plain living.
There was a silent moment when everything held its breath, and then the sun rose. It was beautiful.
It’s okay,” I said, wishing I was dead and buried somewhere.
Maybe people are younger when they are asleep.
Mace,′ I said struck by a thought, ’did you ever think that all those people in those cars have a whole separate story to them, that it’s just as important to them as our stuff is to us, and we don’t know anything about it. Maybe sometime we’ll run across somebody and two years ago they were driving past us on the highway and we never knew it. Like sometimes we meet people and bump off of them and never see them again and we never know why paths cross.
I remembered what Jamie had said, that love doesn’t solve anything. Maybe. But it helps.
I don’t want to die now. It ain’t long enough. Sixteen years ain’t long enough. I wouldn’t mind it so much if there wasn’t so much stuff I ain’t done yet and so many things I ain’t seen. It’s not fair.
That’s why we’re separated,” I said. “It’s not money, it’s feeling – you don’t feel anything and we feel too violently.” “And” – she was trying to hide a smile – “that’s probably why we take turns getting our names in the paper.
But it still hurt anyway. You know a guy a long time, and I mean really know him, you don’t get used to the idea that he’s dead just overnight.
If you’re going to lead people, you’ve got to have somewhere to go.
Love ought to be a real simple thing. Animals don’t complicate it, but with humans it gets so mixed up it’s hard to know what you feel, much less how to say it.