Allison Whittenberg > Quotes

“Solly had had the right idea from the start. It was a war we were in and, in a war, you can't say, I’ll do this, but I won't do that. Everything has to be on the table. You have to take on your foe, holding nothing back.
Anything else would be cruel.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“High school was a world of insides and outsides, but these barriers were so thin they were invisible. Yet, they couldn't be penetrated.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“This is Periot; everyone has a gun, except for the people who need one.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“People are obviously the problem because they lose sight of the fact that a weapon is supposed to be used for defense, not offense. Of course, everyone knows a gun can't go and fire itself. Someone (hopefully a responsible someone) has to man the trigger.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“You know he doesn't mean it, Solly. He doesn't mean to hurt you. My father was the same way. He'd get carried away sometimes. He had a temper, but he really didn't mean any harm.
I wish I could pretend this was the first time I'd heard this speech, but it wasn't. She always delivered it with the same conviction. At least she believed in what she was saying. I guess that counted for something”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“I tell you, Jonah, there's nothing good that ever came out of the barrel of a gun.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“In every bad situation, there's always time to act, but only a second or two before the cliché comes true and bad goes to worse.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“I've been crazy mad, but you have to believe me that sometimes the smartest thing to do is to hold your fire.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“I was sure there were no cross burnings here (or do they call it lightings?) but I was sure he'd met friction. Anyway, what's a little racial hassle compared to a big backyard and decent school system? After all, only in big cities did you flee crime and despair, right? Smalltown America was ideal, doves flew and all that And if you were a minority, a little name calling never hurt anyone.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“I should accept my fate as a loner. An outsider. A weirdo freak. It was better not to get attached to anything. Stress level lowered. Inevitable withdrawal because life was so hard and everything crumbled with time. Let them have it.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“Time had trapped Mr. Leland in a bubble The Vietnam conflict was ancient history to most Americans, but it may as well have been yesterday to him, the way it bound him tight
I guess something like that you never get past”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“There are all different kinds of violence.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“Every single person is so clear with what he will take and what he won't. Give me a break. It's not that simple, so just forget the whole thing. You live your life. I'll live mine.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“I knew that in a perfect world, everyone deserved the right to die of natural causes, even crass jocks and stuck up cheerleaders.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“Death like the ending /of a good miniseries/ surprising.../inevitable....”
― Allison Whittenberg, They Were Horrible Cooks: Poems

“The only thing better than one oblivious parent is two oblivious parents.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“Obsession was as natural as milk. Everyone was chasing something and most people didn't just give up.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“Would the war keep pressing on for eight years, then another eight years? Bush to Obama to whoever came next. Each president handing the baton to the next. War on top of war.
Shifting deployment numbers. Up, down, in between. Relentless.
The cycle was heartless.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“I don't have time for girls; I've got too many problems”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“What was the use of honor? I'd rather be safe”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“Fight. Fight. Fight. Was that all my life had become? One conflict after another?”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“It's said that in abusive relationships there are no victims, only volunteers. I would like to know the originator of that statement and note how well he could jump off a speeding train or if he could even get out of Rogers' slow-moving car as it took its circles and squares”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“Anyone will tell you that when it comes to matters of accusations of sexual abuse, the victims get the same hairy eyeball as the perp.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“When you grow up in a small town, you realize things about people.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“These cases are hard to gauge - you'll drive yourself crazy trying to figure out the criminal mind”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“Fun was had, or,/at least, impersonated”
― Allison Whittenberg, They Were Horrible Cooks: Poems

“Fair is fair. But fair is unfair at the same time.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“People who are used to doing something tend to do it well.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“War is nothing but one long funeral,”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel

“I know she was one of those teachers-who-wanted-to-change-things, but she had to know that by our age, we weren't clay, we were bricks.”
― Allison Whittenberg, Killing the Father of Our Country: A Fierce and Haunting YA Novel