Brent Hartinger > Quotes

“Why can’t there be just one place for gay kids, where we don’t have to hide who we are? Hell, straight people have the whole rest of the world! They go around holding hands and kissing and talking about ‘my-girlfriend-this’ and ‘my-boyfriend-that.’ And they say we shove our lifestyle in their faces? That’s a laugh!”
― Brent Hartinger, Geography Club

“The fact is, there's a difference between being alone and being lonely; I may not of been completely alone in life, but I was definitely lonely.”
― Brent Hartinger, Geography Club

“people make mistakes. If there was no such thing as forgiveness, there wouldn’t be any friendships left in the world.”
― Brent Hartinger, Geography Club

“I got to third base. At baseball practice the following Monday, that is. As for what happened that night with Kevin at the stinky picnic gazebo, that's none of your damn business.”
― Brent Hartinger, Geography Club

“Are you?" I said. "Gay, I mean?"

-

I hoped he wasn't offended by my asking, but after everything that had happened, I really wanted to know.

"No," he said. "I thought I was for about a w-w-week once. But now I know I'm not."

If there was ever an answer that sounded like the truth, that was it.”
― Brent Hartinger, Geography Club

“I know that opposites attract, but who the hell wants to spend time with an opposite?”
― Brent Hartinger

“even the ugliest place in the world can be wonderful if you’re there with good friends—just like the most fabulous destination on earth is pretty boring when you’re all alone.”
― Brent Hartinger, Geography Club

“Min hadn't just played the "friend" card — she'd dressed it up in all kinds of cool Batman imagery. Gunnar and I were powerless to resist.”
― Brent Hartinger

“Just because you can't understand me, doesn't mean I can't understand you”
― Brent Hartinger

“did it ever occur to whoever wrote that stupid adage that hurtful words might be a pretty good indication that sticks and stones are on the way?”
― Brent Hartinger, The Order of the Poison Oak

“(Who is hotter, Jensen Ackles or Jared Padalecki? The age-old debate continues!)”
― Brent Hartinger, The Thing I Didn't Know I Didn't Know

“In spite of everything, he still felt wonderful, like I was embracing a mountain. But I now knew that as solid as he seemed, he was no mountain.”
― Brent Hartinger

“It was the voice of someone who had known both amazing joy and intense pain, and who knew that ultimately you can’t really have one without the other.”
― Brent Hartinger, The Order of the Poison Oak

“A lot of people think that being droll and bitter and cynical is somehow hip and edgy and cool, and maybe it is. But it's also cowardly - and more than a little lonely. People act that way because they're afraid of getting hurt.”
― Brent Hartinger, The Letter Q: Queer Writers' Notes to their Younger Selves

“every life is cinematic—you just need to know when to fade to black.”
― Brent Hartinger, The Thing I Didn't Know I Didn't Know

“Nobody really knows what life is about. We're all just trying to make sense of something that doesn't make much sense.”
― Brent Hartinger, The Thing I Didn't Know I Didn't Know

“I was deep behind enemy lines, in the very heart of the enemy camp.”
― Brent Hartinger, Geography Club

“This time, there were things I'd be giving up forever. My visa to the Land of the Popular, for one thing, and probably even my return ticket to the Borderlands of Respectability.”
― Brent Hartinger, Geography Club

“It's the choices we make, not the experiences we have, that make us who we are.”
― Brent Hartinger, The Otto Digmore Decision

“I am what I am. Like the truth is what it is. It's not good or bad, it just is. The truth is neutral. We're the ones who decide if something is good or bad.”
― Brent Hartinger, The Otto Digmore Difference