Laurie Halse Anderson
If I can write a book that will help the world make a little more sense to a teen, then that's why I was put on the planet.Collection: Teen
We have to acknowledge that adolescence is that time of transition where we begin to introduce to children that life isn't pretty, that there are difficult things, there are hard situations, it's not fair. Bad things happen to good people.Collection: Good
I've written in every imaginable location; a repurposed closet, the kitchen table, the bleachers while my kids had basketball practice, the front seat of the car when they were at soccer. In airports. On trains. In the break room when I was supposed to be wolfing down dinner. In the back of classrooms when I was supposed to be paying attention.Collection: Car
That can be the most painstaking aspect of being a teen, figuring out what the world really looks like. If you find someone in a book, you know you're not alone and that's what's so comforting about books.Collection: Teen
Sometimes when I find myself very irritated about a topic, I know it's my next book.
It's bad timing, but a lot of kids become teenagers just as their parents are hitting their mid-life crisis. So everybody's miserable and confused and seeking that new sense of identity.
I think maybe I might have to do what some other authors do, which is do a variation on my name, just to send readers the message that, 'Yep, this is me, but this is a different part of me. So brace yourself.'
The feedback I get is that my books are honest. I don't sugar-coat anything. Life is really hard.
This is my one beef with Hollywood: It's great for movie sales, but they've created this fiction for us that, when you have a hard thing in your life, it's going to get fixed, and then your life will be awesome! Forever!
I reach for funny books all the time to help me get through life.
Kids are mostly very resilient.
Some adults would rather pretend that bad things don't exist than to talk about them.
Each reader has to find her or his own message within a book.
I don't reread my books after they're published, because it's agony.
Sometimes things just fall out of your head on the paper, and if you're smart, you learn not to touch them.
I think how veterans are treated in our country is an abomination. We don't have the draft any more, which is why so many soldiers come from working-class - rather than middle- or high-income families. Those wealthier families aren't affected, so they're not agitating for change.
I am super proud of being an American, but we fail our veterans every day.
We're good at taking care of little kids, and spend a lot of energy teaching them things like how to read. But when kids get as tall as their parents and can look them in the eyes, we tend to drop the ball - at a time they most need a loving consistent community of adults, be it parents, aunts, uncles, or others.
We've fallen down on our responsibility to our children by somehow creating this world where they're surrounded by images of sexuality; and yet, we as adults struggle to talk to kids honestly about sex, the rules of dignity and consent.
I'm finally watching 'Mad Men.' As a child of the '60s, I can't believe how old everything looks! I am the age of baby Eugene.
I've dealt with depression my entire life, on and off, which makes me the perfect author for teenage readers.
You know how sometimes you hear a chord played on an organ and you can feel it vibrating in your bones? Sometimes when I'm writing, I can feel my bones vibrating because I'll have a thought or I'll have a character's voice in my head, and that's when I know I'm on the right track.
I wish America would stop judging and criticizing teens and instead, try to understand the battles they have to fight every day.
I'm a big 'Star Trek' fan.
I am beginning to measure myself in strength, not pounds. Sometimes in smiles.Collection: Self Esteem
You have to know what you stand for, not just what you stand against.Collection: Speak
Don't expect to make a difference unless you speak up for yourself.Collection: Differences
Write about the emotions you fear the most.Collection: Motivational
I don't say anything and I feel awful. I tell somebody and I feel worse. I'm having trouble finding a middle ground.Collection: Say Anything
A scar is a sign of strength. . .the sign of a survivor.Collection: Survivor
Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.Collection: Children
You can tell a book is real when your heart beats faster. Real books make you sweat. Cry, if no one is looking. Real books help you make sense of your crazy life. Real books tell it true, don't hold back and make you stronger. But most of all, real books give you hope. Because it's not always going to be like this and books-the good ones, the ones-show you how to make it better. Now.Collection: Crazy
When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time.Collection: Inspirational
I wonder how long it would take for anyone to notice if I just stopped talking.Collection: Talking
There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn't matter anymore.Collection: Self Esteem
Sometimes I think high school is one long hazy activity: if you are tough enough to survive this, they'll let you become an adult. I hope it's worth it.Collection: School
I failed eating, failed drinking, failed not cutting myself into shreds. Failed friendship. Failed sisterhood and daughterhood. Failed mirrors and scales and phone calls. Good thing I'm stable.Collection: Drinking
I believe that you've created a metaphorical universe in which you can express your darkest fears. In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves, and sometimes we do such a good job, we lose track of reality.Collection: Jobs
It doesn't hurt. Nothing hurts except the small smiles and blushes that flash across the room like tiny sparrows.Collection: Hurt
I just want to sleep. A coma would be nice. Or amnesia. Anything, just to get rid of this, these thoughts, whispers in my mind. Did he rape my head, too?Collection: Nice
I have survived. I am here. Confused, screwed up, but here. So, how can I find my way? Is there a chain saw of the soul, an ax I can take to my memories or fears?Collection: Truth
Can't escape pain, kiddo. Battle through it and you get stronger.Collection: Pain
I need a new friend. I need a friend, period. Not a true friend, nothing close or share clothes or sleepover giggle giggle yak yak. Just a pseudo-friend, disposable friend. Friend as accessory. Just so I don't feel or look so stupid.Collection: True Friend
School libraries are the foundations of our culture – not luxuries.Collection: School
When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time. You'd be shocked at how many adults are really dead inside—walking through their days with no idea who they are, just waiting for a heart attack or cancer or a Mack truck to come along and finish the job. It's the saddest thing I know.Collection: Jobs
It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.Collection: Lying
IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding.Collection: Running
He says a million things without saying a word. I have never heard a more eloquent silence.Collection: Silence
This girl shivers and crawls under the covers with all her clothes on and falls into an overdue library book, a faerie story with rats and marrow and burning curses. The sentences build a fence around her, a Times Roman 10-point barricade, to keep the thorny voices in her head from getting too close.Collection: Girl
I am locked into the mirror and there is no door out.Collection: Mirrors