The Outsiders

by S.E. Hinton

I don’t know how to explain it—we try to be nice to the girls we see once in a while, like cousins or the girls in class; but we still watch a nice girl go by on a street corner and say all kinds of lousy stuff about her. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know why.

We look hoody and they look decent. It could be just the other way around—half of the hoods I know are pretty decent guys underneath all that grease, and from what I’ve heard, a lot of Socs are just cold-blooded mean—but people usually go by looks.

“Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold . . .”

wait I thought it was "stay golden, Ponyboy"

Why do you use your initials instead of your full name? My publisher was afraid that the reviewers would assume a girl couldn’t write a book like The Outsiders. Later, when my books became popular, I found I liked the privacy of having a “public” name and a private one, so it has worked out fine.