{"author":"Stephen Chbosky","author_id":"Stephen+Chbosky","total_quotes":118,"quotes":[{"text":"I sat down and tried to write a story.'Ian MacArthur is a wonderful sweet fellow who wears glasses and peers out of them with delight.'That was the first sentence. The problem was that I just couldn't think of the next one. After cleaning my room three times, I decided to leave Ian alone for a while because I was starting to get mad at him.","author":"Stephen Chbosky","tags":["humor","writing"],"id":103,"author_id":"Stephen+Chbosky"},{"text":"Incidentally, I only have one cavity, and as much as my dentist asks me to, I just can't bring myself to floss.","author":"Stephen Chbosky","tags":["charlie","humour","life"],"id":2235,"author_id":"Stephen+Chbosky"},{"text":"I just wish that God or my parents or Sam or my sister or someone would just tell me what's wrong with me. Just tell me how to be different in a way that makes sense.","author":"Stephen Chbosky","tags":["coming-of-age","sad","young-adult-fiction"],"id":3600,"author_id":"Stephen+Chbosky"},{"text":"My grandfather was crying. The kind of quiet that is quiet and a secret. The kind of crying that only I noticed. I thought about him going into my mom's room when she was little and hitting my mom and holding up her report card and saying that her bad grades would never happen again. And I think now that maybe he meant my older brother. Or my sister. Or me. That he would make sure that he was the one to work in a mill. I don't know if that's good or bad. I don't know if it's better to have your kids be happy and not go to college. I don't know if it's better to be close with your daughter or make sure she has a better life than you do. I just don't know.","author":"Stephen Chbosky","tags":["family-relationships","inspirational"],"id":4002,"author_id":"Stephen+Chbosky"},{"text":"If somebody likes me, I want them to like the real me, not what they think I am.","author":"Stephen Chbosky","tags":["like","love","people"],"id":5262,"author_id":"Stephen+Chbosky"},{"text":"And she says she wants to expose me to all these great things. And to tell you the truth, I don't really want to be exposed to all these great things if it means that I'll have to hear Mary Elizabeth talk about all the great things she exposed me to all the time. I don't understand that. I would give someone a record so they could love the record, not so they would always know that I gave it to them.","author":"Stephen Chbosky","tags":["adolescence","culture","philosophy"],"id":6038,"author_id":"Stephen+Chbosky"},{"text":"But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things.","author":"Stephen Chbosky","tags":["inspirational"],"id":8697,"author_id":"Stephen+Chbosky"},{"text":"She also keeps talking about the Billie Holiday record she bought for me. And she says she wants to expose me to all these great things. And to tell you the truth, I don't really want to be exposed to all these great things if it means that I'll have to listen to Mary Elizabeth talk about all the great things she exposed me to all the time. It almost feels like of the three things involved: Mary Elizabeth, me, and the great things, only the first one matters to Mary Elizabeth. I don't understand that. I would give someone a record so they could love the record, not so they would always know that I gave it to them.","author":"Stephen Chbosky","tags":["bitches","gifts","histrionic-people","kindness","love","obnoxious-people","self-centered-people","selfishness","selflessness","snobs"],"id":16262,"author_id":"Stephen+Chbosky"},{"text":"I walk around the school hallways and look at the people. I look at the teachers and wonder why they're here. If they like their jobs. Or us. And I wonder how smart they were when they were fifteen. Not in a mean way. In a curious way. It's like looking at all the students and wondering who's had their heart broken that day, and how they are able to cope with having three quizzes and a book report due on top of that. Or wondering who did the heart breaking. And wondering why.","author":"Stephen Chbosky","tags":["alienation","angst","life","teenager"],"id":21107,"author_id":"Stephen+Chbosky"},{"text":"I think he was especially happy because I used to kiss this boy in the neighborhood a lot when I wasvery little, and even though the psychiatrist said it was very natural for little boys and girls to explorethings like that, I think my father was afraid anyway. I guess that's natural, but I'm not sure why.","author":"Stephen Chbosky","tags":["cute","funny"],"id":24519,"author_id":"Stephen+Chbosky"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":118,"pages":12,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}