Jack Gantos > Quotes

“Someone once said anyone can be great under rosy circumstances, but the true test of character is measured by how well a person makes decisions during difficult times.”
― Jack Gantos, Hole in My Life

“Since I was trying so hard to make books lead my life, I didn’t want to read them and then just put them back on the shelf and say, “good book,” as if I was patting a good dog. I wanted books to change me, and I wanted to write books that would change others.”
― Jack Gantos, Hole in My Life

“It wasn't that I hated being asked a bunch of questions. I had nothing against questions. I just didn't like listening to them, because some questions take forever to make sense. Sometimes waiting for a question to finish is like watching someone draw an elephant starting with the tail first. As soon as you see the tail your mind wanders all over the place and you think of a million other animals that also have tails until you don't care about the elephant because it's only one thing when you've been thinking about a million others.”
― Jack Gantos, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key

“Do you think I'm weird because I'm wired, or wired because I'm wierd?”
― Jack Gantos, What Would Joey Do?

“Each time I read a book, I cataloged the parts that struck me dumb with envy and admiration for their beauty and power and truth.”
― Jack Gantos, Hole in My Life

“...who proved that you don't have to do what your parents want, or what your boyfriend wants, for you to be happy. You just have to be yourself, for there is no love greater than self love”
― Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt

“Don't ever go to war. Even if you win, the battle is never over inside you.”
― Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt

“Don't ever forget your history," she sang, "or any wicked soul can lie to you and get away with it.”
― Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt

“It's like when you read a book and you know that the words are important, but the images blossoming in your imagination are even more important because it's your mind that allows the words to come to life.”
― Jack Gantos

“You can't do anything for a person who is stuck between being happy and being miserable. All you can do is get trapped in the middle, and anyone in the middle just gets squished.' -Grandma”
― Jack Gantos, What Would Joey Do?

“If you have an orderly mind, you'll be a winner no matter where you end up. If your mind is a jumble of junk, you'll be a loser. It's as simple as that.”
― Jack Gantos, Jack on the Tracks: Four Seasons of Fifth Grade

“You gotta face the hand you're dealt with and deal with it, and make your problems be the smallest part of who you are.”
― Jack Gantos, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key

“I like Saturdays. They are my best thinking days. It is my day to try to find that one special thought that turns into an idea that I remember forever and becomes a part of who I am, like a freckle or a finger or an ear. Even before I open my eyes I take a deep breath and try to picture something, anything, as if my brain were a keyhole where I can spy on my future. So each Saturday morning I try to find a little piece of a thought, and then I keep turning it over in my mind until it turns into a complete idea and at the end of the day when I'm lying in bed I put the whole thought into a little room in my head so I can remember it.”
― Jack Gantos, What Would Joey Do?

“...but every living soul is a book of their own history, which sits on the ever-growing shelf in the library of human memories.”
― Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt

“...we have to save the history we have. You never know what small bit of it might change your life--or change the whole world.”
― Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt

“Not romantic," she disagreed. "To me it would be romantic if Antony properly fell on his sword and kicked the bucket and Cleopatra escaped and lived a lovely life sailing along the Nile without him and his big ideas ruining her kingdom.”
― Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt

“I could see everything she said as if it were a wall painting inside the cave of my own skull.”
― Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt

“I want you to take a sleeve of Thin Mints and line them up on the edge of the kitchen counter and when I'm hungry I can just bend over and sweep a cookie into my mouth like I'm scoring a goal in hockey.”
― Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt

“Granny was right,' I said. 'When you forgive someone it does make you stronger. It makes your heart bigger than your hate.”
― Jack Gantos, I Am Not Joey Pigza

“You want to know a secret?” I asked. “Sure,” she said halfheartedly. “I love to sniff the insides of books,” I said in a whisper. “Because each book has its own special perfume.”
― Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt: (Newbery Medal Winner)

“You know, Joey, the medication has helped settle you down, but you have been a good kid all along. You are naturally good. I hope you know that about yourself. You have a good heart.”
― Jack Gantos, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key

“At the time I didn't realize their lie was a defense against the fear they had of losing their mother. I was still too young to understand that most lies were not about stealing or fighting or cheating but were just ways by which a person shrinks their whole world down to a size they can keep protected in the palm of one hand.”
― Jack Gantos, The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs

“School was finally out and I was standing on a picnic table in our backyard getting ready for a great summer vacation when my mother walked up to me and ruined it.”
― Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt: (Newbery Medal Winner)

“For one second I thought I saw it and I reached down and snatched up a little flesh-colored round thing, but ti was just a used round Band-Aid. My mother slapped it out o fmy hand and that was the first moment I realized she was mad at me too. And suddenly it was as if my heart was as uncontrollable as my legs. All this time I thought she was on my side, because I wa son her side. But maybe she had given up on me too. So I didn't say anything more because I was scared she was going to be against me like everyone else.”
― Jack Gantos, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key

“I have learned this: it is not what one does that is wrong, but what one becomes as a consequence of it.” Oscar Wilde / #Hole_in_my_Life By Jack Gantos”
― Jack Gantos, Hole in My Life

“My youthful dream of becoming a writer has been realized. I am so pleased I did not let my young self down.”
― Jack Gantos

“Another thing I've been trying to do on my walks is to know what I'm looking at, when I'm looking at it. I want to be smart. When I walk down the sidewalk I see about a hundred different kinds of bugs and all I do is point at them like a caveman and say 'Ugh, look, a bug,' but I know each one of them must have a different name and a different reason why and how it came to be on the planet, and I don't know any of that stuff.”
― Jack Gantos, What Would Joey Do?

“Of course I still love my grandma even after all the awful stuff she did to me, which is scary that you can love someone who is not nice. I guess that is what getting better will do to a person: make you forgive people who have been mean to you.”
― Jack Gantos, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key:

“You’re a fast learner,” she remarked. “You’ve gone from slowpoke to safety hazard in one day.”
― Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt: (Newbery Medal Winner)

“You're supposed to feel sorry for me," I said. "What I feel for you and what I can afford are two different things," she said.”
― Jack Gantos, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key