Top 100 Wendelin Van Draanen Quotes
#1. That's the funny thing about running. The deceptive thing about it. It may seem mindless, but its really mental. If the minds strong, the body acts weak, even if its not.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#2. I am a runner. That's what I do. That's who I am. Running is all I know, or want, or care about.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#3. It's funny how you can think you know someone pretty well, and then something happens or they do something that makes you understand that you didn't really know them at all.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#4. At first we tried to keep up, but soon we were tired of boiling and pickling and deviling, and my mother started complaining that all these free eggs were costing her way too much.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#9. I'll ride my bike all the stinkin' way to school for the rest of eternity if it means being with her.
-Bryce
Wendelin Van Draanen
#10. I believe in the paramount importance of entertainment, but I have something to say.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#11. As I run, I wonder how many of these people helped buy my leg.
I wonder about the deep, wide abyss between good intentions and concrete action, and how many of them leapt across it.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#13. What did a kiss feel like, anyway? Somehow I knew it wouldn't be like the one I got from Mom and Dad at bedtime. The same species maybe, but a radically different beast, to be sure.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#14. Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss ... " He turned to me. "But every once in a while, you find someone who's iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#16. I'd way rather defend myself against a man with a stick than a social worker with good intentions.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#17. But in my heart I knew the old Bryce was toast. There was no going back. Not to Garrett or Shelly or Miranda or any of the other people who wouldn't understand. Juli was different, but after all these years that didn't bother me anymore.
I liked it.
I liked her.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#19. As much as thinking this upsets me, I'm starting to see that I need the merry-go-round much more than it needs me, and in the end my choice is to hop back on or get left in the dust.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#20. Sometimes a little discomfort in the beginning can save a whole lot of pain down the road.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#21. Surely, I thought, a few bushes and some dilapidated wood couldn't stop someone's best and brightest blessing! Surely not!
Wendelin Van Draanen
#22. There was other stuff, too, like how something can be so much more than the parts it took to make it, and why people need things around them that lift them above their lives and make them feel the miracle of living.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#25. Maybe my mother's right. Maybe there is more to Bryce Loski than I know.
Maybe it's time to meet him in the proper light.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#26. He tells us that life isn't about what happens to you, it's about what you do about what happens to you.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#27. Julie always tried to stand beside me, or talk to me, or in some other way mortify me.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#28. Get beyond his eyes and his smile and the sheen of his hair
Look at what's really there.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#32. If you are interested in writing, get out and live your life! Do a lot. See a lot. Keep your eyes and ears open. Pay attention to the different ways people speak. Read lots of different kinds of books. And then try writing in different voices and styles - don't be afraid to experiment.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#33. My mission as a writer is to give my readers hope to carry with them, and to promote a belief that they can do anything they set their minds to.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#34. Writing is work. It takes a lot of contemplation, concentration, and out-and-out sweat. People tend to romanticize it, that somehow your work appears by benefit of some mystical external force. In reality, to be a writer, you have to sit down and write. It's work, and often it's hard work.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#35. It was nice, though, riding with my father. It was like the silence connected us in a way that explanations never could.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#36. If the mind's not strong, the body acts weak, even if it's not. If the mind says it's too cold or too rainy or too windy to run, the body will be more than happy to agree. If the mind says it would be better to rest or recover or cut practice, the body will be glad to oblige.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#39. I realize something. That wasn't a finish line for me ... This is my new starting line.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#41. So there I was, with the two hottest girls on campus, having lunch. I was "the man", the envy of every other guy in our school.
Buddy, I was miserable."
-Bryce Loski
Wendelin Van Draanen
#42. Really, Dad. I understand now about the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#43. A painting is more than the sum of its parts,' he would tell me, and then go on to explain how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you've got magic.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#45. It felt like there was a dark spot in my heart. Like a bruise. And it was getting deeper and wider with every lie I told.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#46. And for the first time in my life, I had that feeling. You know, like the world is moving all around you, all beneath you, all inside you, and you're floating.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#47. I'd scale that monster sycamore if I could. Right to the top. And I'd yell her name across the rooftops for the whole world to hear.
-Bryce
Wendelin Van Draanen
#48. If you were in love with her, that would be one thing. Love is something to be afraid of, but this, this is embarrassing.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#49. Which I guess is better than her playing her usual role in How I Ruined My Daughter's Life.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#50. To by held above the earth and be brushed by the wind," she said,"it's like your heart has been kissed by beauty.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#51. It's experiences in life that give us something to write about, and since good fiction is applied tension, you'll have an arsenal of good material if life hasn't been peachy (and not a whole lot if it has).
Wendelin Van Draanen
#52. It's amazing how two thin pieces of clothing can hold such deep memories. Laughter, pain, victory, defeat, friendship, fatigue, elation ... they're all there, but only to the person who's worn the uniform
Wendelin Van Draanen
#53. Now, I know from experience that the trouble with one lie is that it usually takes more lies to cover it up. And if you don't watch out, you wind up telling lies to cover up the lies that are covering up the original lie.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#54. You told us over and over that you don't think you could live without books, but the ironic thing is, you'd probably die before you'd think to rip pages out of one to start a fire. Am I right?
Well, get over it already. Better to be warm then well-read.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#55. I write early in the morning at the computer, and people think I'm crazy, but I still use my Mac-Classic even though we have a state-of-the-art PC. There are just less distractions with the simpler machine.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#56. Next time you're faced with a choice, do the right thing. It hurts everyone less in the long run.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#57. A million dollars sounds like a lot, I know. Especially when you're young. But you can't let money erode your principles or you'll wind up with nothing.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#59. My grandfather stood beside me and looked across the street, too. "No, Bryce," he said softly. "She's the same as she's always been; you're the one who's changed." He clapped his hand on my shoulder and whispered, "And son, from here on out, you'll never be the same again.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#60. It's disturbing how fast weeds take root in my garden of worthiness.
They're so hard to pull.
And grow back so easily.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#61. You can't dwell on what might have been ... and it's not fair to condemn him for something he hasn't done.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#62. Don't even try to talk to me when I'm watching the moon. That's my moon, baby.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#64. I'm not going to be able to sleep a wink tonight.
I hate shelters.
People coughing and snoring and hacking up who-knows-what.
It's a nightmare.
But I do have clean teeth.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#67. But in my heart I knew that just like the new grass, I wasn't strong enough yet to be walked on
Wendelin Van Draanen
#68. One's character is set at an early age. The choices you make now will affect you for the rest of your life. I hate to see you swim out so far you can't swim back.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#69. Sometimes the things we really want are right in front of us. We just don't see them.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#70. Holly, I understand that you are upset because Gemma pulled down your ants, but why did you think pouring motor oil inside her backpack is the way to solve the problem?
Wendelin Van Draanen
#71. Either people like running or they don't. Either people get it or they don't. And if they don't, they just think people who like it are crazy.
Which is okay.
That makes us even.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#72. How do you sort the treasure from the trash? When does something move from sentimental to disposable? And if you think you are ready to part with it, are you really? If you throw it away today, will you regret it tomorrow? Or will it be something you never think about again?
Wendelin Van Draanen
#73. I operate under the assumption that people don't notice the good in me. That's just how things always seem to play out. I get blamed, while con-artist kids like Venus, and Camille, and Gemma get believed. But the rescue lady noticed. In the background, just observing, she noticed.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#74. Street people use cardboard all the time, and bum alleys are just shanties or lean-tos, though. They're nothing like my house! Mine is deluxe! It's a big, thick, super sturdy refrigerator box that I found at an appliance store!
Wendelin Van Draanen
#77. It was beyond embarrassing or humiliating or even mortifying. It was ego-slaying!
Wendelin Van Draanen
#79. What I'm expecting is for you to behave like the gentleman I always thought you were.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#80. There are certain things I believe we need to keep in our emotional arsenal as we navigate through life. Hope is a big one. The more of that we can carry, the better.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#81. If chaos is a necessary step in the organization of one's universe, then I was well on my way.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#82. I also finally see that a crimson kiss isn't something you can chase, because it's more than just the passionate meeting of mouths.
It's a confession.
It's the truth your lips whisper to someone you love.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#83. The room fell quiet. And as I read down the list of over one hundred and fifty eight-grade boys, I realized that to me, there had only ever been one boy.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#84. I rewrite my books many times before submitting them, and after my editor takes a look I wind up rewriting some more! It's a good thing I learned at an early age to keep on trying. Stick to it, and eventually you'll get there.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#85. Sometimes I get so caught up in my own problems that I forget how amazing the world is.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#86. All of a sudden I didn't fit in anywhere. Not at school, not at home ... and every time I turned around, another person I'd known forever felt like a stranger to me. Even I felt like a stranger to me.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#88. The choices you make now will affect you for the rest of your life. Do the right thing.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#90. I wipe away my tears and nod, because the pain in my leg is nothing compare to the one in my heart.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#91. Part of my motivation for writing mysteries for young people is that I loved mysteries when I was growing up, and now that I'm on the creative end of things, I'm discovering that they're even more fun to write!
Wendelin Van Draanen
#92. And, dude, the truth is, if you're gonna be like this, I don't need the association.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#95. Maybe it was how you looked at it. Maybe there were things I saw as ugly that other people thought were beautiful.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#96. Words can't fix my life.
Words can't give me a family.
Words can't do jack.
You may be a teacher, Ms. Leone, but face it: You don't know squat.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#97. It's that way with people, too. Only with people it's sometimes that the whole is less than the sum of the parts.
Wendelin Van Draanen
#99. (Actually now I'm remembering that the goodbye chow isn't spelled that way. It's ciao or something weird like that. It's Italian, right? But I'm not an Italian gypsy, I'm a hungry gypsy. So spelling it chow makes total sense.)
Wendelin Van Draanen
#100. Seriously. There's no winning arguments with your parents, so why get all pumped up over them? It is way better to dive down and get out of the way than it is to get clobbered by some parental tidal wave.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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