12 Matchsticks Quotes

“David thought about it. There were many things that happened that seemed bad. But his mom said God only did the good stuff… even if it seemed bad at the time—in the end, it’s good. Like the yucky medicine that tastes bad, but in the end makes you better. He finally looked at Trevor and nodded. “I do believe God is good and true.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“But only if you swear not to tell them.” David nodded. “But my mom doesn’t let me swear. She said let my yes be yes and my no”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“The prayers he’d prayed after the match stories. They came true.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“To me, that’s what’s important at Christmas. People. Family. Friends.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“Faith is like a muscle. If you didn’t use it, you lose it.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“Our business is to take whatever comes our way in life and do the best we can with it. And God will see to it that we are duly rewarded.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“And the eighth stupid thing,” Trevor whispered, stroking David’s back, “was not realizing you needed this hug a lot sooner. My bad, little man.” “I”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“And the seventh stupid thing? Is an amazing, huge hearted young man named David, allowing any one thing to stand in his way of being happy, especially when happiness isn’t in what you get or where you go, but who you’re with and who you are.” Trevor touched David’s chest softly just as his tears spilled over, right onto his hand. “I”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“By the end of the day, David’s mood had brightened. He didn’t like the yucky things inside him while joy waited to play and have fun with him. He decided to put the funky stuff in the back of his mind and think only of the good things. And”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“So did you have a good day?” Mr. Druff asked the question with anger, like he was not happy to. David never understood that about him. He often did nice things, but you could tell he wasn’t happy about doing it. Like he’d made some deal with God to be nice at least once a day, even if it killed him. It certainly seemed to cause him pain and annoyance. “Yes”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“And he especially never told anybody that he didn’t have a dad. He never lied about it, but David found many clever ways to avoid answering that question when it was brought up. ”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“David really didn’t know the boy who’d pulled his name this year. Jerry Reed. He was one of the quiet ones. David tried his best to warm up to him, but it was like trying to be friends with a rock.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“Maybe it was a little childish to be that happy about getting one present, but David didn’t have best friends or even a close friend and so, little things meant a lot. His mom said he was easy to please. Maybe he got that talent from being poor. But”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“His body knew he was in a place that meant home.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“The angel laughed and stretched his staff out, touching the paper star at the top of the Christmas tree. "As long as you have the star of David in your heart...”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“come. But then he remembered the hope part. Faith, his mom also called it. Believing in something good even when it was nowhere around to be seen.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“And the third very stupid thing is Mr. Druff’s store phone. Are we in the stone-age? Who still has a rotary phone? Ohhhh, I am on a roll,”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“He’d probably get a bag of cow jewels, as Mr. Druff called them. Which was ground up cow innards stuffed into its own stomach skin until it looked like innocent links of sausage. It was pure evil if you asked David.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“Anything could happen to change the destiny of a man. Whether it be something that raises him up to royal heights or lowers him to the slums of the forgotten street.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“Have a seat,” David said, trying to help her out a little. “Mom’s head is in the cookie clouds I think.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“When Mr. Trevor came out of the bathroom, Sarah gasped, “Look mom, he looks like a real man!”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“David ran off before he could tell the man what was on his mind. “If you paid the least attention, you’d know we don’t own a television much less a video game, Mr. Poo- Poo-Brown-Pants Scrooge.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“Every year they made something to add to the collection. So far they had popcorn garland, meat paper chains, and snowflakes.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“Just kick him in the shin,” David said, opening the curtain that served as a wall for his part of the bedroom. “I can’t do that! He’ll cut me up into pieces and wrap me in paper and sell me for Christmas.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“Son!” he went on in a shrill voice. “Do you realize what you have there?” No, David didn’t and he wanted very much to know. Were they like the beans in Jack and the Bean Stalk or what? “Those—are Christmas matches!”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“These matches… they wouldn’t be… the story telling kind of matches, would they?”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks

“And just because presents were big didn’t mean they were good. It could be a trashcan or… a broom, like his mom got once from the neighbor. To David, that was like getting a hundred vocabulary words to write.”
― A.C. Kret, 12 Matchsticks