PeachyTO’s Reviews > Fragile Beasts > Status Update

'Do you consider America your home or Spain?'
'They are both my home, yet somehow neither is my home. I like to think of myself as a flower--a strong, handsome flower--that's been picked and put in a vase while my roots have been left to grow a new flower.'

"The last job he had was being a janitor," I added quietly.
"Then you should be really proud of yourself. And your brother, too. You're both going places. Moving up in the world."
I know what she's implying. I don't say anything because I could never explain how I feel about my dad to someone like Starr.
I might end up being more than him but not better.

Everyone's not a winner, I want to explain to them, and telling people who are losers that they're winners isn't good for anybody. How are kids who suck ever going to get better if people tell them they're good when they're not?

'An artist doesn't create in order to get money, or fame, or acceptance, or love. It's a force inside him, something he must do or his soul will shrivel up and die.'

'Being an artist is not like being a lawyer or a dentist or even a baseball player like your brother,' he tells me. 'You have to earn the right to be called these things. You need society's permission. An artist simply is what he is with or without anyone's approval.'

I've decided that the worst part of loneliness isn't being alone. It's being forgotten.

What is the definition of "living" in the figurative sense? Is it being able to get out of bed in the morning, dress yourself, and go to your job? Is it the ability to laugh at a joke? To appreciate a sunset? To enjoy your time on earth without being consumed by bitterness and apathy? If it's the last one, then every day I see people who are dead and not because they suffered a tragedy.

Shelby's sports car is red, too, but a flashier shade. It's parked in front of the house: small, scarlet, shiny, and rounded like a drop of new blood.

Eventually I figured out that the reason they seemed pleased about being screwups and disappointed in me for doing well was because it was easier to make people who do something better than you feel bad about themselves than it is to admit there's something wrong with you and maybe you should try and fix it.

She loosens her grip on my arm and while I watch her begin to calm down it strikes me that although fear and love can be faked like any other emotion, they are the only two, when genuinely felt, that can't be hidden.