Syd L

“Before I nodded off, I thought about what my dad had said—​that life wasn’t all nice and neat like a book, and life didn’t have a plot filled with characters who said intelligent and beautiful things. But he wasn’t right about that. See, my dad said intelligent and beautiful things. And he was real. He was the most real thing in the entire world. So why couldn’t I be like him?”
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, The Inexplicable Logic of My Life

“Words exist only in theory. And then one ordinary day you run into a word that exists only in theory. And you meet it face to face. And then that word becomes someone you know. That word becomes someone you hate. And you take that word with you wherever you go. And you can't pretend it isn't there.”
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, The Inexplicable Logic of My Life

“Grasp the subject; the words will follow.”
― Cato The Elder

“What we need to understand is that books weren't written so that young people could write essays about them, but so that they could read them if they really wanted to.

Knowledge, academic track record, career, and social life are one thing. Our intimacy and cultural awareness as readers are quite another.”
― Daniel Pennac, Comme un roman