Lili Wilkinson > Quotes

“This episode of my life is brought to you by the letters W, t, and F. I do not understand.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Pink

“Her heart began to ache, and she felt the numbness slip away. Misery welled up inside her. She clamped down on it, trying to hold onto the deadness that had blanketed her emotions for the past few days.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Scatterheart

“Sam whacked Jacob over the ear. 'You know,' he said, his voice low, 'those pancakes'll go straight to your hips.'

Jacob glowered at him. 'You know,' he mimicked, 'there's a reason nothing rhymes with orange.'

'There is a reason,' returned Sam. 'It's because orange comes from the Arabic word naranj, which in turn is thought to derive from the Tamil words aru, which means six, and anju, which means five. Because when you cut an orange in half, it has six segments in one half and five in the other. So nothing rhymes with it because we don't have many other words appropriated from Tamil.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Pink

“No, seriously,' choked Sam, his eyes streaming. 'You're such a loser, that you've actually stopped losing and have progressed to having just lost. It's over. The game is over. You have lost the game of life. Do not pass Go. Do not collect two hundred dollars.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Pink

“School's okay. I mean, it's the usual oppressive regime of fascist dogma. But I'm surviving.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Pink

“Ava: 'Girls liking boys is normal.'
Pat: 'No, it isn't. It's just common.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Pink

“I think that sometimes the whole larger-than-life gay thing is just another kind of closet. It's easier to be different if you're very different, if you go all-out on purpose. Because that way you can still hide who you really are.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Pink

“Jacob: 'So have you heard that in seventy years there won't be any gingers left on Earth?'

Jules: 'Really? Huh. Nature. Awesome.'

Sam: 'Actually, it's not true. It was some bogus report cooked up by a hair-dye company to get some extra press.'

Jacob: 'Sure it was, Fanta-pants.'

Ava: 'He's right. The recessive gene that causes red hair is totally able to skip generations, so redheads won't die out due to genetics.'

Sam: 'Thank you, Ava. It's nice to know that someone around here is sensible.'

Ava: 'Of course, redheads might become extinct because they find it so hard to get laid...”
― Lili Wilkinson, Pink

“Finally getting that sex change? I'm proud of you, brother. I mean, sister.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Pink

“There was a crackle. Kobe's voice came through the cans. "What would you guys do," he said, apropos of nothing, "if Jules turned into a lizard?"

Another crackle. "Hey!" Jules said.

"It wouldn't happen," said Jacob, and I saw him shrug in the half-light.

"But what if?"

I pressed the talk button on my cans. "There's an old fish tank in our garage," I said. "I'd put Jules in it, and then get a heat rock from the pet shop."

I heard Sam's low chuckle. "Make sure you wash your hands first."

"Why?"

"So you don't get any lizardy diseases."

"I don't have any lizardy diseases!" Jules's voice was getting higher.

"Not yet, but wait until you're a lizard."

"What's a heat rock?" asked Jacob.

"It's a rock," I told him, "that you heat up. Lizards like them. Anyway, once I'd done that, I'd take you to see my cousin Adam."

"IS HE A WIZARD?”
― Lili Wilkinson, Pink

“I cry out for every girl who was told to comb her hair and wash the mud from her face. To keep herself contained. To be ashamed of her voice, her hair, her flesh. To be quiet and good and nice. Girls are not nice. Girls are wild and fierce and powerful, and I will not let anyone take that away. Not ever again.”
― Lili Wilkinson, A Hunger of Thorns

“Sam sighed. "Let's just say that I'm a terminal disappointment. And a ranga."

I frowned. "What is that? The others keep saying it."

Sam hesitated for a moment. "It's...Greek. It means debonair and handsome and generally made of awesome."

I regarded him skeptically. "It's short for orangutan, isn't it?" I said. "Because you're a redhead."

Sam looked disappointed. "Maybe.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Pink

“The tree of revenge yields no fruit.”
― Lili Wilkinson, The Not Quite Perfect Boyfriend

“Parents aren't supposed to cry. They're not supposed to have emotions, apart from anger, disappointment and pride. And fatigue. But they're never supposed to cry. It seems like such a personal, private thing.”
― Lili Wilkinson, The Not Quite Perfect Boyfriend

“And hither and thither fly--Mere puppets they, who come and go, At bidding of vast formless things, that shift the scenery to and fro.'"

His voice was hushed and whispery in the earphones. "Mere puppets," he repeated. "It's Edgar Allen Poe."

"So are we the vast formless things?"

"Yep."

I grinned up at him. "Are you calling me fat and unshapely?"

His low laugh tickled my ears. "Quite the contrary," he said. "Jacob can be vast, and I shall be formless. Your form is very pleasing.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Pink

“Ava darling, I am willing to admit that these stage crew freaks you hang out with are not entirely made of evil. But please, for the love of Han Solo, don't make me eat fish and chips with them. I just ate two pancakes and a quite disgusting sausage, and If I don't get some salad soon I honestly might die.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Pink

“Is it shocking?" he asked sarcastically. "To discover that there are things you don't know?”
― Lili Wilkinson, Green Valentine

“You can't help who you fall in love with.”
― Lili Wilkinson, The Not Quite Perfect Boyfriend

“That's what I need to figure out. I need to figure out who I am. What I want.”
― Lili Wilkinson, The Not Quite Perfect Boyfriend

“Ripples of sunset dance towards our feet, swirling into the colours from the graffiti, reflected on brown water.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Oona Underground: A #LoveOzYA Short Story

“A single pink poppy lay on the footpath, its roots still crusted with earth. I picked it up and it drooped forlornly in my hands.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Green Valentine

“Do you hear me, mountain?' She yelled into the storm. I'm not giving in. I crossed an ocean to get here. I climbed this mountain. I will not let her die.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Scatterheart

“Pink was for girls.
Girly girls who wore flavored lip gloss and read magazines and talked on the phone lying on their perfect, lacy bedspreads with their feet in the air. Girls who spent six months looking for the perfect dress to wear to the school formal.
Girls who liked boys.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Pink

“If you stay home all the time, stories never happen. Sometimes you have to break something in order for the story to leak out through the cracks.”
― Lili Wilkinson, A Hunger of Thorns

“I don't believe in telling people what they should do, so I'll tell you what you shouldn't do instead... young people can't write a book because they don't have enough life experience, teachers and parents please cover your ears for a second, that it BULLSHIT! Anyone can write a book if they have an idea.”
― Lili Wilkinson

“Correct. That’s the Sucker Effect. You do something, while making the audience think you did something else. So they’re all busy feeling self-congratulatory that they figured it out, and it gives you all this awesome wriggle room to keep tricking them.”
― Lili Wilkinson, The Zigzag Effect

“She was going to burst, or fall apart. Something. She couldn't keep feeling like this. The emptiness inside her was too big; it would swallow her whole.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Scatterheart

“People talk about a broken heart like it's something in the past. Like the break has already happened. My heart is not broken. It's breaking. Being torn apart, each artery and tendon stretching and snapping.
I long for broken. Perhaps when my heart has finished breaking, the pain will lessen and dull.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Unhallowed Halls

“A girl so full of wildness and passion and rage that maybe she couldn't contain the whole of herself.”
― Lili Wilkinson, A Hunger of Thorns

“By the end of summer, this trolley will be bursting with spuds. Like nature's own supermarket.”
― Lili Wilkinson, Green Valentine