Collected Quotes: Looking For Alaska
Best Of “It was right then […] that I realized the importance of curves, of the thousand places where girls’ bodies ease from one place to another, from arc of the foot to ankle to calf, from calf to hip to waist to breast to neck to ski-slope nose to forehead to should to the…
Best Of
“It was right then […] that I realized the importance of curves, of the thousand places where girls’ bodies ease from one place to another, from arc of the foot to ankle to calf, from calf to hip to waist to breast to neck to ski-slope nose to forehead to should to the conclave arch of the back to the butt to the etc. I’d noticed curves before, of course, but I had never quite apprehended their significance.”
— “One Hundred Twenty-Eight Days Before.” Looking for Alaska – Page 19
“[…] religion is important whether or not we believed in one, in the same way that historical events are important whether or not you personally lived through them.”
— “One Hundred Twenty-Six Days Before.” Looking for Alaska – Page 33
“You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.”
— “One Hundred Days Before.” Looking for Alaska
“‘At least it was instant. At least there wasn’t any pain.’ […] what is an ‘instant’ death anyway? How long is an instant? Is it one second? Ten? […] What the hell is instant? Nothing is instant. Instant rice takes five minutes, instant pudding an hour. I doubt that an instant of blinding pain feels particularly instantaneous.”
— “Two Days After.” Looking for Alaska – Page 146
“You can’t just make me different and then leave.”
— “Twenty Days After.” Looking For Alaska – Page 172
“Did I help you toward a fate you didn’t want […] or did I just assist you in your willful self-destruction?”
— “One Hundred Eighteen Days After.” Looking for Alaska – Page 212
“We can’t know better until knowing better is useless.”
— “One Hundred Thirty-Six Days After.” Looking for Alaska – Page 218
Chapter By Chapter Quotes
One Hundred Thirty-Six Days After
“[…] we are as indestructible as we believe ourselves to be. When adults say ‘Teenagers think they are invincible’ with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don’t know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broke. […] We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations.”
— “One Hundred Thirty-Six Days After.” Looking for Alaska – Page 220
“We can’t know better until knowing better is useless.”
— “One Hundred Thirty-Six Days After.” Looking for Alaska – Page 218
One Hundred Eighteen Days After
“Did I help you toward a fate you didn’t want […] or did I just assist you in your willful self-destruction?”
— “One Hundred Eighteen Days After.” Looking for Alaska – Page 212
Twenty Days After
“You can’t just make me different and then leave.”
— “Twenty Days After.” Looking For Alaska – Page 172
Two Days After
“‘At least it was instant. At least there wasn’t any pain.’ […] what is an ‘instant’ death anyway? How long is an instant? Is it one second? Ten? […] What the hell is instant? Nothing is instant. Instant rice takes five minutes, instant pudding an hour. I doubt that an instant of blinding pain feels particularly instantaneous.”— “Two Days After.” Looking for Alaska – Page 146
— “Two Days After.” Looking for Alaska – Page 146
“I just needed you to pick up. I just needed you to answer the phone, and you did.”
— “Two Days After.” Looking for Alaska – Page 144
One Day Before
“[…] what you must understand about me is that I am a deeply unhappy person.”
— “One Day Before.” Looking for Alaska – Page 124
Two Days Before
“There comes a time when we realize that our parents cannot save themselves or save us, that everyone who wades through time eventually gets dragged out to sea by the undertow.”
— “Two Days Before.” Looking For Alaska – page 120
Eighty-Four Days Before
“I’m really not up for answering any questions that start with ‘how, when, where, why, or what.’”
— “84 Days Before.” Looking For Alaska – Page 68
Eighty-Seven Days Before
“[…] it’s stupid to miss someone you didn’t even get along with. But, I don’t know, it was nice, you know, having someone you could always fight with.”
— “Eighty-Seven Days Before.” Looking For Alaska – Page 66
One Hundred Days Before
“Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia.”
— “One Hundred Days Before.” Looking for Alaska – Page 54
“You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.”
— “One Hundred Days Before.” Looking for Alaska – Page 32
One Hundred Twenty-Six Days Before
“[…] religion is important whether or not we believed in one, in the same way that historical events are important whether or not you personally lived through them.”
— “One Hundred Twenty-Six Days Before.” Looking for Alaska – Page 33
“[…] you may be smart, but I’ve been smart longer.”
— “One Hundred Twenty-Six Days Before.” Looking for Alaska – Page 32
One Hundred Twenty-Eight Days Before
“It was right then […] that I realized the importance of curves, of the thousand places where girls’ bodies ease from one place to another, from arc of the foot to ankle to calf, from calf to hip to waist to breast to neck to ski-slope nose to forehead to should to the conclave arch of the back to the butt to the etc. I’d noticed curves before, of course, but I had never quite apprehended their significance.”
— “One Hundred Twenty-Eight Days Before.” Looking for Alaska – Page 19
“She had the kind of eyes that predisposed you to supporting her every endeavor.”
— “One Hundred Twenty-Eight Days Before.” Looking for Alaska – Page 19
