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21 " It's like when you read a book and you know that the words are important, but the images blossoming in your imagination are even more important because it's your mind that allows the words to come to life. "
― Jack Gantos
22 " Don't ever go to war. Even if you win, the battle is never over inside you. "
― Jack Gantos , Dead End in Norvelt
23 " If you have an orderly mind, you'll be a winner no matter where you end up. If your mind is a jumble of junk, you'll be a loser. It's as simple as that. "
― Jack Gantos , Jack on the Tracks: Four Seasons of Fifth Grade (Jack Henry, #4)
24 " ...but every living soul is a book of their own history, which sits on the ever-growing shelf in the library of human memories. "
25 " ...we have to save the history we have. You never know what small bit of it might change your life--or change the whole world. "
26 " I could see everything she said as if it were a wall painting inside the cave of my own skull. "
27 " School was finally out and I was standing on a picnic table in our backyard getting ready for a great summer vacation when my mother walked up to me and ruined it. "
28 " At the time I didn't realize their lie was a defense against the fear they had of losing their mother. I was still too young to understand that most lies were not about stealing or fighting or cheating but were just ways by which a person shrinks their whole world down to a size they can keep protected in the palm of one hand. "
― Jack Gantos , The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs
29 " My youthful dream of becoming a writer has been realized. I am so pleased I did not let my young self down. "
30 " For one second I thought I saw it and I reached down and snatched up a little flesh-colored round thing, but ti was just a used round Band-Aid. My mother slapped it out o fmy hand and that was the first moment I realized she was mad at me too. And suddenly it was as if my heart was as uncontrollable as my legs. All this time I thought she was on my side, because I wa son her side. But maybe she had given up on me too. So I didn't say anything more because I was scared she was going to be against me like everyone else. "
― Jack Gantos , Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (Joey Pigza, #1)
31 " You want to know a secret?” I asked. “Sure,” she said halfheartedly. “I love to sniff the insides of books,” I said in a whisper. “Because each book has its own special perfume. "
32 " Of course I still love my grandma even after all the awful stuff she did to me, which is scary that you can love someone who is not nice. I guess that is what getting better will do to a person: make you forgive people who have been mean to you. "
33 " You're supposed to feel sorry for me," I said. "What I feel for you and what I can afford are two different things," she said. "
34 " But it was the kind of story that doesn't go away after the first time you tell it so you have to tell it over and over until it goes away for good. If it ever can. "
35 " I was always a liar. But one thing I failed to realize about being a liar is that you know when you are deceiving someone else, but when you deceive yourself you believe you are telling the truth. "
― Jack Gantos , The Trouble in Me
36 " They say love is blind, but for me it's the opposite. It makes me see the good in him, too, which is why I can never hate him.' --Mom (Fran) "
― Jack Gantos , I Am Not Joey Pigza (Joey Pigza, #4)
37 " Be suspicious of history that is written by the conquerors. "
38 " I knew she was not telling me the truth. I asked her again what had happned because I don't like it when she keeps something from me. She's not allowed. Because when she lies, someting inside me changes, and it's like the WHOLE WORLD is one way and I'm the other. Like I can't trust a thing, as if the whole world knows a secret I don't and I'm running around from person to person asking them to tell me but they won't and the more I don't know what is going on the more scared I become and I feel myself drifting farther and farther away from everyone. "
― Jack Gantos , What Would Joey Do? (Joey Pigza, #3)
39 " pooped all over the carpet, eaten the slippers, and attacked the mailman, and was now being sent to obedience school. "
40 " You’re a fast learner,” she remarked. “You’ve gone from slowpoke to safety hazard in one day. "