Honestly Ben Quotes

“But I do think that when we choose the easy path, where people or society reward us for being what they want us to be, against who we really are, a kind of death occurs. To the soul.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“I think it's okay to just say who you are without it being final or something. I mean, none of us are finished products. We change. We keep changing. We won't be finished products 'til the day we die.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“Anyway, my whole thing is, whatever path I'm on, I'm on. I'm not going to avoid it because it's harder for the world, or even harder for me. I'm like, I gotta be me, you know?”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“The idea that because things are worse somewhere else, you’re not allowed to have issues in your life. That’s what people who are trying to avoid having normal feelings say.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“And during, I realized that the labels didn’t matter, because when two people feel that sort of pull toward each other, it just works, and the only label that mattered was that I was in love. Totally, fully, ecstatically.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“Vulnerability is allowing people to see you exactly as you are, which is really hard, because when you’re vulnerable you can get hurt. Most people armor up with bravado or something, but those people are missing out, because without allowing yourself to be vulnerable, it’s tough to have, like, any emotional experience at all. Letting people in is really vulnerable, and most people—especially introverts—have trouble.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“The finite, to me, was a thing of beauty. There was a start and an end. Someday we'd all be history, and if I was going to be history then, it meant I existed now.

Sometimes I wasn't so sure of that.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“My dad always says this thing, that when you have a foot in tomorrow and a foot in yesterday, you’re pissing all over the present.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“I think some people are bi, definitely.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“I turned to Rafe and swam (and sunk) in his hazel eyes.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“As I opened the car door and stepped back into the chilly night, I was thinking that maybe the key to life is to have goldfish memories. So you can’t remember the time a friend hurt you. So you can give second and third and even fourth chances. To yourself too. Because sometimes it takes multiple”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“Vulnerability is allowing people to see you exactly as you are, which is really hard, because when you’re vulnerable you can get hurt. Most people armor up with bravado or something, but those people are missing out, because without allowing yourself to be vulnerable, it’s tough to have, like, any emotional experience at all.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“Well, I definitely believe that there are more things under the sun than we understand, and people are just people. Live and let live and all that."
- Benjamin Carver”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“Everybody wanted something from me, and some days it felt like I was being pulled in thirty different directions, and I wondered how anyone figured out how to be all things to all people without going insane. The”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“It’s not, like, denial? In the GSA we joke that bi guys are just gay guys who aren’t ready to admit it yet.” I”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“I shivered. Careful, I told myself. You don't want to set yourself up for a fall. Be happy. Just not too happy.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“I dont always know what to say.' 'Why do you have to know? Can't you just say things without knowing if they're the right things to say?”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“I was thinking that maybe the key to life is to have goldfish memories. So you can't remember the times a friend hurt you. So you can give second and third and even fourth chances. to yourself to. Because sometimes it takes multiple chances to get things fully right to put the universe in order.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“But to me, bi meant equally attracted to boys and girls. I wasn’t that. I was basically attracted to girls and one specific guy. There had to be a term for that.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“Then I would be considered, well, I don’t know what. Gay? Bi? Which I wasn’t. And if I was, that meant I was something my dad thought was bad. Unlovable.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“So if I were a—transphobe—that would be, like, a deal breaker?” “It wouldn’t be a good thing,” she said.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“I’m just me, and me is confusing”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“I'm so tired of being a type... it's not just a black and white thing. Jock. Geek. Stoner. No one is considered just a human being, it seems like.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“...when you have a foot in tomorrow and a foot in yesterday, you're pissing all over the present.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“I wanted to watch his mouth as I made him laugh. I wanted to see his face light up with the spark of whatever silly joke there was, and I wanted to kiss him too, and really more than that, which was not a straight thing, I know, but it was also true.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“And it's hard to express the truth when the world wants you to be someone else.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“Love you, Ben.'
My facial muscles relaxed. I hadn't realized it, but I'd been tense in my face all day until that moment.
'Love you more,' I said, and I turned to face him, and our lips met, lightly, and we stayed connected like that for what felt like forever, and I was home again.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“That was a level of commitment I’d never be able to understand, and I wished there was something out there I felt so strongly about I’d willingly die for it.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben

“In the grand scheme of the universe, that doesn't amount to a parasite on an ant on the butt of an elephant."
- Benjamin Carver”
― Bill Konigsberg, Honestly Ben