"This is how the girl who couldn't speak and the man who couldn't see fell in love."
— Margaret Atwood (The Blind Assassin)

"Do they choose to be so dense? Were they born that way? I have no friends. I have nothing. I say nothing. I am nothing. "
— Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak)

"Just in case we forget that "weareheretogetagoodfoundationsowecangotocollegeliveuptoourpotencialgetagoodjoblivehappilyeverafterandgotoDisneyWorld," we have Job Day. Like all things Hi!School, it starts with a test, a test of my desires and dreams... Am I (a) a helper? (b) a doer (c) a planner (d) a dreamer?"
— Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak)

"I want to be in fifth grade again. Now, that is a deep dark secret, almost as big as the other one. Fifth grade was easy -- old enough to play outside without Mom, too young to go off the block. The perfect leash length. "
— Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak)

"the cradle rocks above an abyss and the common sense tell us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness."
— Nabokov

"Mr Freeman: "Art without emotion is like chocolate cake without sugar. It makes you gag." He sticks his finger down his throat. "The next time you work on your trees, don't think about trees. Think about love, or hate, or joy, or pain- whatever makes you feel something, makes your palms sweat, or your toes curl. Focus on that feeling.
When people don't express themselves, they die on 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.""
— Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak)

"Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first."
— Arthur Schopenhauer

"It's you who stand to lose, if you are not brave enough to state your case. "
— Garsenda de Forcalquier

"Here is the time for the sayable, here
is its home.
Speak and attest. More than ever
the things we can live with are falling
away,
and ousting them, filling their place,
a will with no image.
Will beneath crusts which readily crack
whenever the act inside swells and
seeks new borders."
— Rainer Maria Rilke (Duino Elegies)

"When I pass, speak freely of my shortcomings and my flaws. Learn from them, for I'll have no ego to injure."
— Aaron McGruder (Boondocks: Because I Know You Don't Read The Newspaper)

"When I speak, I speaks."
— Robert Creeley