Addie on the Inside Quotes

“Another Thing I'm Sick of Hearing:

If I started that gay rights group,
I must be gay.

So if i start an animal rights group,
what does that make me?

A giraffe?”
― James Howe, Addie on the Inside

“What's wrong
with being out there, out there like a star
shining in the night when that's the only way
the star can be seen? You never tell a star:

Hey
Tone it down.”
― James Howe, Addie on the Inside

“You don't have to have a boyfriend
or a girlfriend to know love.

Just open up your heart and
let the world in. Your heart

is bigger than you can imagine,
and so is the world, and so,

granddaughter, are you.

—Addie's grandmother”
― James Howe, Addie on the Inside

“Some days I want to put my head in the sand. There's too much pain out there, there's too much that scares me. But I wouldn't be able to breathe with my head in the sand, and I wouldn't be able to hear or see or smell. The world is a lovely place...despite the sadness it holds for each of us, despite the terrible things we do.”
― James Howe, Addie on the Inside

“Writing it down

is the way I make it real,
the way I find my way
into what it is I feel.

The words on paper or
computer screen
tell me more than
what I knew before
I wrote them,

help me remember
what I'm afraid
I'll forget,

let me keep
what I don't want
to lose,

say to me:
You
were
here.”
― James Howe, Addie on the Inside

“Who do you see
when you think of you?
Are you an outsider,

Cool, distant, angry,
swimming against the current,
or are you in the flow?

When they tell you,
This is who you are,
do you say yes or no?

Who do you see
when you look beyond
the skin and the surface,
when you drift to sleep,

when you are the person
no one else knows? Who
are you on the inside?

Don't answer these questions.
Not yet. First, open your eyes,
your mind, your heart.

See.”
― James Howe, Addie on the Inside

“Maybe this is what it's like for all only children: To love the family that isn't almost as much as the one that is.”
― James Howe, Addie on the Inside

“What must it be like
to move through your days always
in step with a friend?”
― James Howe, Addie on the Inside

“Who do you see
when you look at them?
You know the ones I mean:

the others, the olders,
the youngers, the ones
who are not you, not

like you or your friends,
who wear the labels
you give them until

they give them back,
saying, I believe these
belong to you.”
― James Howe, Addie on the Inside