Long Way Down Quotes

“ANOTHER THING ABOUT THE RULES

They weren't meant to be broken.
They were meant for the broken

to follow.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“People always love people more when they're dead.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“but if blood inside you is on the inside of someone else,

you never want to see it on the outside of them”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“AND YOU KNOW
it's weird to know
a person you don't know

and at the same time

not know
a person you know,

you know?”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“MY MOTHER USED TO SAY,

I know you're young,
gotta get it out,
but just remember, when
you're walking in the nighttime,
make sure the nighttime
ain't walking into you.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“When bad things happen
we can usually look up and see
the moon, big and bright,
shining over us.

That always made me feel better.

Like there's something up there
beaming down on us in the dark.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“I SWEAR SOMETIMES

it feels like God be flashing photos of his children, awkward, amazing, tucked in his wallet for the world to see. But the world don't wanna see no kids, and God ain't no pushy parent so he just folds and snaps us shut.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“ALIVE = A VEIL”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“ANAGRAM

is when you take a word and rearrange the letters to make another word. And sometimes the words are still somehow connected ex: CANOE = OCEAN. Same letters, different words, somehow still make sense together, like brothers.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“Buck laughed, and

laughter,

when it's loud
and heavy
and aimed
at you,

I think
can feel just
as bad as
a bullet's

bang."
-Will”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“Shawn turned back toward me, eyes dull from death but shining from tears, finally spoke to me. Just two words, like a joke he'd been saving. YOU COMING?”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“I FELT LIKE CRYING

which felt like
another person
trapped behind my face

tiny fists punching
the backs of my eyes
feet kicking
my throat at the spot
where the swallow
starts.

Stay put, I whispered to him,
Stay strong, I whispered to me.

Because crying
is against

The Rules.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“How do you small-talk your father when "dad" is a language so foreign that whenever you try to say it, it feels like you got a third lip and a second tongue?”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“AND EVEN THOUGH

his face was wet with tears he wasn't supposed to cry when he was alive, I couldn't see him as anything less than my brother, my favorite, my only.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“People always love people more when they are dead.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“Shawn's dead. So strange to say. So sad. But I guess not surprising, which I guess is even stranger, and even sadder.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“But if the blood inside you is on the inside of someone else, you never want to see it on the outside of them.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“A BROKEN HEART

killed my dad. That's why my mother always said. And as a kid I always figured his heart was forreal broken like an arm or a toy or the middle drawer.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“Like I was holding my breath. Maybe I was. Maybe I was hoping I could give some back to Shawn.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“in the mirror
my face sagged,
like sadness
was trying to pull
the skin off”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“Weird talking to my dad like he was a stranger even though we hugged like family.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“Just remember, when you're walking in the nighttime, make sure the nighttime ain't walking into you.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“And I'll never go asleep again believing that touching them or anything of his will lead to an arm around my neck.

But it feels like an arm around my neck, wrenching, just thinking about how I'll never go to sleep again believing him or believing he will eventually come home, because he won't, and now I guess I should love him more, like he's my favorite, which is hard to do because he was my only brother, and already my favorite.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“THE INVENTION OF THE RULES

ain't come from my brother, his friends, my dad, my uncle, the guys outside, the hustlers and shooters, and definitely not from me.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“MAYBE THERE'S SOMETHING INVISBLE trying to eat all of us as if we are beef.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“The sound you hear in your head, the one people call ears ringing, sounds less like a bell, and more like a flatline.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“Buck pressed his finger to my chest like he was pushing an elevator button. The L button. But you ain't got it in you, Will, he said, cocky. Your brother did, but you- you don't. ”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“IS IT POSSIBLE

for a huge to peel back skin of time, the toughened and raw bits, the irritated and irritating dry spots, the parts that bleed?”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“Best to become invisible
in times like these.
Everybody knows that.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“PEOPLE ALWAYS SAID

he was taught to do good
but doing bad
was in his blood.

And there's that nighttime
Mom always be talking about.

It'll snatch your teaching
from you,

put a gun in your hand,
a grumble in your gut,
and some sharp in your teeth.”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down