Sam Quotes
"You respect the wall; you learn from the wall, and you know that nine times out of ten you fail."
"You have to work and work and pay and pay and even then, Jack comes around."
"You pay your bills. You lock your door. You do your homework. Everybody’s got a job."
"He is good with plants. It’s what he needs right now."
"But I appreciate Samantha now. She made me read, even though I didn’t want to."
"She would read me a story and she would read and read, until just at the most exciting part, she’d stop."
"By now Sam’s dad has read so many books, he is almost like a book himself."
"When your ship comes in you can do anything. You can live in a tent. You can walk around the world. You can climb mountains."
"Magic makes you question what you used to believe and believe what you were questioning."
"Every rock traveled with the glaciers sliding over the earth and gouging out the valleys."
"Ithaka where Odysseus arrives home and kills everybody who has been eating his food and stalking his wife."
"Boring is the worst. Boring is writing a report."
"You learn the rules for triangles and circles and it's like a map."
"Mountains rising from the sea. Island chains stretching like beads on a string."
"Lying is like everything else. Practice every day, and you get better."
"What happens when you climb up to the second story and fall into the parking lot? You’re dead."
"He is always rushing, and she’s always waiting."
"You are beautiful, he whispers, almost reluctantly."
"Nothing is dangerous. Nothing is wrong. Nothing is right."
"You do have a girlfriend, you have Toby. You have lots of people."
"I’m quitting." The word stings—and not just Sam.
"He shows her pictures on his phone. There is a white horse named Daisy and a gray one named Archer."
"It’s like you’re a TV, but you’re stuck on the homework channel."
"She won’t ever talk about him, or see him, or think of him again."
"That’s how you can tell you’re an adult. People start thinking you know what you are doing."
"Sam sits next to her and she says, "Do you ever sleep?""
"He brushes his hands together and both cards disappear."
"You can be helpful and nasty at the same time."
"You can be a new person in the trees. You can have a reputation—like, you are fearless."
"It’s like swimming because the water is warm. It’s not like you have to drown yourself in him."
"The reason anyone does anything is because they want to."
"It’s like living in a book in Justin’s house."
"They are like air plants. They live on nothing."
"What scares Courtney is that Sam will change her mind and decide against college, now that she’s with Justin."
"You aren’t sleeping," Justin says. "Yes I am." "Oh, okay. I thought you were lying awake worrying about tomorrow morning."
"Every once in a while, Bowen says something interesting and then he says, "Side note!"
"Sam does listen. She even chants the equation, and at the same time, she can’t wait to leave."
"It’s better than high school," he tells her. "Oh, thanks!"
"You can’t even keep up with the maps. Some islands are growing. Some are disappearing."
"My mom paid my tuition!" "You can take different classes." "Stop trying to make me feel better."
"But geology is the world for real—the earth under your feet. It is where you are and what is happening."
"You are my planet. You are my umbrella"—all the lines she and her dad would think up on the sidewalk with his typewriter.
"The history of the entire earth. How could anyone say no to that?"