Gary D. Schmidt Quotes - Page 2

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Brothers Eyes Giving Lying

I saw my town as if I had just arrived. It was as if I was waking up. You see houses and buildings every day, and you walk by them on your way to something else, and you hardly see. You hardly notice they're even there, mostly because there's something else going on right in front of your face, But when the town itself becomes the thing that is going on right in front of your face, it all changes, and you're not just looking at a house, but at what's happened in that house before you were born.

Gary D. Schmidt

House, Wake Up, Way

Gary D. Schmidt (2007). “The Wednesday Wars”, p.223, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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You can't just skip the boring parts." "Of course I can skip the boring parts." "How do you know they're boring if you don't read them?" "I can tell." "Then you can't say you've read the whole play." "I think I can live a happy life, Meryl Lee, even if I don't read the boring parts of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark." "Who knows?" she said. "Maybe you can't.

Gary D. Schmidt

Happy Life, Thinking, Play

Gary D. Schmidt (2007). “The Wednesday Wars”, p.215, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Maybe the first time that you know you really care about something is when you think about it not being there,and when you know-you really know-that the emptinessis as much as inside you as outside you.For it falls out,that what we have we prize not to the worth whiles we enjoy it;but being lacked and lost,why,then we rack the value,then we find the virtue that possesion would not show us while it was ours.That's when I knew for the first time that I really did love my sister.

Gary D. Schmidt

Fall, Thinking, Care

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No matter what happens, there is always the business of the world to attend to.

Gary D. Schmidt

World, Matter, No Matter What

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Think of the sound you make when you let go after holding your breath for a very, very long time. Think of the gladdest sound you know: the sound of dawn on the first day of spring break, the sound of a bottle of Coke opening, the sound of a crowd cheering in your ears because you're coming down to the last part of a race--and you're ahead. Think of the sound of water over stones in a cold stream, and the sound of wind through green trees on a late May afternoon in Central Park. Think of the sound of a bus coming into the station carrying someone you love. Then put all those together.

Gary D. Schmidt

Letting Go, Cheer, Spring

Gary D. Schmidt (2009). “The Wednesday Wars”, p.235, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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She came over and looked at the picture. Then she took my hand. You know what that feels like? Like what the astronauts will feel when they step onto the moon for the very first time.

Gary D. Schmidt

Moon, Hands, Firsts

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When gods die, they die hard. It's not like they fade away, or grow old, or fall asleep. They die in fire and pain, and when they come out of you, they leave your guts burned. It hurts more than anything you can talk about. And maybe worst of all is, you're not sure if there will ever be another god to fill their place. Or if you'd ever want another god to fill their place. You don't want the fire to go out inside you twice.

Gary D. Schmidt

Hurt, Pain, Fall

Gary D. Schmidt (2009). “The Wednesday Wars”, p.93, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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You know, when someone has been crying, something gets left in the air. It's not something you can see or smell, or feel. Or draw. But it's there.

Gary D. Schmidt

Air, Smell, Cry

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.138, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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A comedy isn't about being funny," said Mrs. Baker. "We talked about this before." "A comedy is about character who dare to know that they may choose a happy ending after all. That's how I know." "Suppose you can't see it?" "That's the daring part," said Mrs. Baker.

Gary D. Schmidt

Character, Bakers, May

Gary D. Schmidt (2009). “The Wednesday Wars”, p.262, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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There is no Art made without power, and there is no reason for Art to be made except for power.

Gary D. Schmidt

Art, Power, Reason

Gary D. Schmidt (2012). “What Came from the Stars”, p.182, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Maybe this happens to you every day, but I think it was the first time I could hardly wait to show something that I'd done to someone who would care besides my mother. You know how that feels?

Gary D. Schmidt

Mother, Thinking, Waiting

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.77, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Sometimes--and I know it doesn't last for anything more than a second--sometimes there can be perfect understanding between two people who can't stand each other. He smiled, and I smiled, and we put the Timex watches on, and we watched the seconds flit by.

Gary D. Schmidt

Two, People, Perfect

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.156, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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There's no pleasure in getting to be an old coot unless you have some fun along the way.

Gary D. Schmidt

Fun, Way, Pleasure

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.164, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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It means, Doug Swieteck, that in this class, you are not your brother.

Gary D. Schmidt

Brother, Mean, Class

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.102, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Reader, I kissed her. A quiet walk we had, she and I.

Gary D. Schmidt

Quiet, Walks, Reader

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In the whole story of the world, bananas have never once been a special treat.

Gary D. Schmidt

Special, Stories, World

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.249, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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I think something must happen to you when you get into eight grade. Like the Doug Swieteck's Brother Gene switches on and you become a jerk.
Which may have been Hamlet, Prince of Denmark's problem, who, besides having a name that makes him sound like a breakfast special at Sunnyside Morning Restaurant--something between a ham slice and a three-egg omelet--didn't have the smarts to figure out that when someone takes the trouble to come back from beyond the grave to tell you that he's been murdered, it's probably behooveful to pay attention--which is the adjectival form.

Gary D. Schmidt

Morning, Brother, Smart

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Mrs. Daugherty was keeping my bowl of cream of wheat hot, and she had a special treat with it, she said. It was bananas. In the whole story of the world, bananas have never once been a special treat.

Gary D. Schmidt

Special, Hot, Stories

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.249, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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In English, we were still on the Introduction to Poetry Unit, and I'm not lying, if I ever meet Percy Bysshe Shelley walking down the streets of Marysville, I'm going to punch him right in the face.

Gary D. Schmidt

Lying, Faces, Introduction

Gary D. Schmidt (2011). “Okay for Now”, p.265, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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A comedy isn’t about being funny...a comedy is about characters who dare to know that they may choose a happy ending after all.

Gary D. Schmidt

Character, May, Comedy

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So you just went in and told him to give you two Cokes and he gave them to you?" "No, I didn't just go in and tell him to give me two Cokes. I asked for a Coke for me and a Coke for the skinny thug sitting on the library steps.

Gary D. Schmidt

Thug, Two, Giving

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...and she ran out of the diesel combustion and right to me and we held each other and we were not empty at all. "Holling," she said. "I was so afraid I wouldn't fine you." "I was standing right here, Heather." I said. "I'll always be standing right here.

Gary D. Schmidt

Heathers, Empty, Said

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Do you ever wonder what it's like to be so angry that you...And then something happens, and after that, everyone figures that's what you're like, and that's what you're always going to be, and so you just decide to be it? But the whole time you're thinking, Am I going to be like him? Or am I already like him? And then you get angrier, because maybe you are, and you want... He stopped. He wiped at his eyes. I'm not lying. My brother wiped at his eyes.

Gary D. Schmidt

Brother, Lying, Eye

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You know, there are good reasons to learn how to read. Poetry isn't one of them. I mean, so what if two roads go two ways in a wood? So what? Who cares if it made all that big a difference? What difference? And why should I have to guess what the difference is? Isn't that what he's supposed to say? Why can't poets just say what they want to say and then shut up?

Gary D. Schmidt

Mean, Differences, Two

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(The raindrops) played across the coast all through the night, until the soft new day shrugged itself awake, tried on amethyst and lavender for a while, and finally decided on pale yellow.

Gary D. Schmidt

Night, Pale Yellow, New Day

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Born: 1957
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

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