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One's character is set at an early age. The choices you make now will affect you for the rest of your life. I hate to see you swim out so far you can't swim back.

Wendelin Van Draanen

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Wendelin Van Draanen
Age: 59
Born: 1965
Born: January 6
Author
Novelist
Writer
Chicago
Illinois
Choices
Age
Hate
Character
Back
Affect
Make
Swim
Life
Early
Rest

More quotes by Wendelin Van Draanen

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As much as thinking this upsets me, I'm starting to see that I need the merry-go-round much more than it needs me, and in the end my choice is to hop back on or get left in the dust.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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Sometimes a little discomfort in the beginning can save a whole lot of pain down the road.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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Sometimes the things we really want are right in front of us. We just don't see them.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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If chaos is a necessary step in the organization of one's universe, then I was well on my way.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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What he did to my heart was sheer, inexplicable, magic.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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A million dollars sounds like a lot, I know. Especially when you're young. But you can't let money erode your principles or you'll wind up with nothing.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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(Actually now I’m remembering that the goodbye chow isn’t spelled that way. It’s ciao or something weird like that. It’s Italian, right? But I’m not an Italian gypsy, I’m a hungry gypsy. So spelling it chow makes total sense.)
Wendelin Van Draanen
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There’s no winning arguments with your parents, so why get all pumped up over them? It is way better to dive down and get out of the way than it is to get clobbered by some parental tidal wave.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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He tells us that life isn't about what happens to you, it's about what you do about what happens to you.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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But in my heart I knew the old Bryce was toast. There was no going back. Not to Garrett or Shelly or Miranda or any of the other people who wouldn't understand. Juli was different, but after all these years that didn't bother me anymore. I liked it. I liked her.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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You got nothin' to lose but your self-respect.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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It was beyond embarrassing or humiliating or even mortifying. It was ego-slaying!
Wendelin Van Draanen
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I had liked him for all the wrong reasons.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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Don't sum up a person based on what you see, or what you don't understand get to know them
Wendelin Van Draanen
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I'd scale that monster sycamore if I could. Right to the top. And I'd yell her name across the rooftops for the whole world to hear. -Bryce
Wendelin Van Draanen
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There was other stuff, too, like how something can be so much more than the parts it took to make it, and why people need things around them that lift them above their lives and make them feel the miracle of living.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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Somehow the silence seemed to connect us in a way like words never could. - Julianna Baker
Wendelin Van Draanen
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I operate under the assumption that people don't notice the good in me. That's just how things always seem to play out. I get blamed, while con-artist kids like Venus, and Camille, and Gemma get believed. But the rescue lady noticed. In the background, just observing, she noticed.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss.... He turned to me. But every once in a while, you find someone who's iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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Holly, I understand that you are upset because Gemma pulled down your ants, but why did you think pouring motor oil inside her backpack is the way to solve the problem?
Wendelin Van Draanen