Tim Federle > Quotes

“So what do you like about New York so much? That you would venture all the way here and not tell anyone?”
“Two boys were dancing together in a club,” I want to say, “and nobody stopped them.”
― Tim Federle, Better Nate Than Ever

“What is life, it comes to me, without the occasional risk of pizza?”
― Tim Federle, Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories

“But the thing about scars is that, as much as they knot you up, they can make you stronger, too. Collect enough scars and you get a whole extra layer of skin, for free.”
― Tim Federle, Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories

“Holy Dance of the Vampires, no! Dance of the Vampires!' (Instead of cursing, we shout out the titles of legendary Broadway flops.”
― Tim Federle, Better Nate Than Ever

“So what do you like about New York so much? That you would venture all the way here and not tell anyone?”
“Two boys were dancing together in a club,” I want to say, “and nobody stopped them.” But instead I say, “I want to be on Broadway, and you can't do that forty-five minutes outside of Pittsburgh.”
― Tim Federle, Better Nate Than Ever

“Basically the most fun part about the first day of anything is buying all the supplies.”
― Tim Federle, Five, Six, Seven, Nate!

“We take everything out to Geoff's car and I'm eating a peach in the front seat and it's dripping everywhere and, you see, this is the problem with fruit. It only seems portable and convenient. Turns out you need a hazmat suit and six towels to eat a peach.”
― Tim Federle, The Great American Whatever

“Can you pick me up on Washington Road in Mount Lebo, actually? I got here and them some kids stole my bike."
"Quinn, your life story is starting to turn into a documentary that people would walk out of because it's both too sad and too slow.”
― Tim Federle, The Great American Whatever

“Because there's only two ways to treat a door in scene: Slam it shut or fling it open. The rest is amateur.”
― Tim Federle, Better Nate Than Ever

“It's a good moment, which is all you can count on or hope for, I think. Tiny little good moments that you catch like a firefly, and just life fireflies, you have to release them, because the whole point is that they're tiny and little and need to be with other fireflies. They aren't a pet. They aren't yours to keep. They're just moments. They're just fireflies.”
― Tim Federle, The Great American Whatever

“I am remarkably unremarkable at sports, at the arts, at academics.”
― Tim Federle, Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories

“There’s a fine line between charming and manipulative.”
― Tim Federle, Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories

“Oh my God,” I say. Holy Cats! (Cats wasn't technically a flop, but Libby says it was, artistically, so it's on our list of alternate swears.)”
― Tim Federle, Better Nate Than Ever

“If you've never been tucked into a futon, you don't know what you're missing.
You're missing nothing, I meant.”
― Tim Federle, Better Nate Than Ever

“If you find yourself trying to figure out what kind of adult you should be, think back to what your younger self paid attention to. There's wisdom in who you were, back before you knew you had to be somebody.”
― Tim Federle, Life Is Like a Musical: How to Live, Love, and Lead Like a Star

“But you should see the sky tonight.
Screw your astrology apps. Screw your games. Look up sometime. There is a whole wing of positive psychology--my therapist told me--that says the greatest way to affect your outlook on life is to consider what you already have more that what you don't have. And so I might not have a cell phone on me, or a sister at home, or a Dad at all, or a future, but holy shit I have the sky.”
― Tim Federle, The Great American Whatever

“There's maybe nothing nicer than somebody just coming straight out and showing you they like you.”
― Tim Federle, The Great American Whatever

“I don't consider myself to be precious, necessarily, but give me air-conditioning or give me death.”
― Tim Federle, The Great American Whatever

“I had to shut off the news. I had to take some time away from the political trashfire that was burning out of control, and in the quiet space I cleared for myself, I remembered something important. Every human being here on earth has a specific purpose in life. That purpose might be running for office; it might be raising a child; it might be studying physics; it might be writing novels. Finding your purpose can be a difficult thing to do, but once you’ve found it, your job is to fulfill that purpose.”
― Tim Federle, How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation

“On the most basic level, resistance means not accepting things the way they are. It means asking questions about how things get done, about how society, laws, and cultural norms have come to be. It can also mean actively taking part in the political process—going to marches, working for campaigns, posting, debating, creating.…”
― Tim Federle, How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation

“Who was that?"
"Nobody," I say to Mom, trying not to actually float by her. "Carly's new boyfriend."
Oh, never mind: I didn't use up all my lies tonight. or maybe it's past midnight, and the lie meter has clicked over to tomorrow morning. More as this story develops.”
― Tim Federle, The Great American Whatever

“Even when you yourself have gotten used to being harassed, there is still nothing worse than the feeling of your family being mortified for you. You never adapt to that.”
― Tim Federle, Better Nate Than Ever

“What matters to you the most, and why does it matter? What rights are you worried about losing, or whose lives do you fear for? Tell their stories.”
― Tim Federle, How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation

“This canned music starts pumping from inside the half-tented amphitheater, twenty feet away across our faux-cobblestone Maine Street. It used to be called Main Street, but Disney apparently sued us in the nineties, so the owners painted an e onto the word Main---even though nothing about Maine Street is evocative of Maine. There are no lobster shacks. There are no fishermen. We are in Pennsylvania.”
― Tim Federle, Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories

“Neither one of them being confident enough to share that news with you because you are, in fact, the monster of this picture. Godzilla got to be the title role, but, my God, he was still the monster. Still the antagonist. Still the wickedest. That is me. The creature who destroys villages and has to be tiptoed around.”
― Tim Federle, The Great American Whatever

“He plays ‘Celebrity,’ at his first college party and here are his celebrities: “1. Hitchcock. 2. Kubrick. 3. Mankiewicz. 4. Preminger. And, for the modern crowd: 5. Tarantino. Yes. Yes. Filmmaker celebrities for the ages.” (45)”
― Tim Federle, The Great American Whatever

“In Pittsburgh, time is just endless.”
― Tim Federle, The Great American Whatever

“That’s actually the most confusing part about being alive without knowing the end of your own hero’s journey. You never know if it’s time to go home or head into battle. You never know if you’ve already faced your biggest monster.”
― Tim Federle, The Great American Whatever

“Momentum toward compassion, understanding, supporting one another … realizing that a person’s struggle, though it’s not mine, is important and I need to defend them and they’re going to defend me … this is how we go forward.”
― Tim Federle, How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation

“Wonder Woman once famously explained her philosophy: “We have a saying among my people. ‘Don’t kill if you can wound, don’t wound if you can subdue, don’t subdue if you can pacify. And don’t raise your hand at all unless you’ve first extended it.”
― Tim Federle, How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation