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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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Wendelin Van Draanen
Age: 59
Born: 1965
Born: January 6
Author
Novelist
Writer
Chicago
Illinois
Life
Tells
Inspiring
Happiness
Peace
Success
Happens

More quotes by Wendelin Van Draanen

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What I'm expecting is for you to behave like the gentleman I always thought you were.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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It's experiences in life that give us something to write about, and since good fiction is applied tension, you'll have an arsenal of good material if life hasn't been peachy (and not a whole lot if it has).
Wendelin Van Draanen
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Julie always tried to stand beside me, or talk to me, or in some other way mortify me.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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If the mind's not strong, the body acts weak, even if it's not. If the mind says it's too cold or too rainy or too windy to run, the body will be more than happy to agree. If the mind says it would be better to rest or recover or cut practice, the body will be glad to oblige.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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All of a sudden I didn't fit in anywhere. Not at school, not at home...and every time I turned around, another person I'd known forever felt like a stranger to me. Even I felt like a stranger to me.
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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...and I realized that Garrett was right about one thing- I had flipped. Completely.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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It's funny how you can think you know someone pretty well, and then something happens or they do something that makes you understand that you didn't really know them at all.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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You got nothin' to lose but your self-respect.
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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Okay that’s it. Now I’m torching this. I just need to score a match.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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I write early in the morning at the computer, and people think Im crazy, but I still use my Mac-Classic even though we have a state-of-the-art PC. There are just less distractions with the simpler machine.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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I fell asleep that night thinking about the kiss that might have been. What did a kiss feel like, anyway? Somehow I knew it wouldn’t be like the one I got from Mom or Dad at bedtime. The same species, maybe, but a radically different beast, to be sure. Like a wolf and a whippet – only science would put them on the same tree.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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It's disturbing how fast weeds take root in my garden of worthiness. They're so hard to pull. And grow back so easily.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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...Next time you're faced with a choice, do the right thing. It hurts everyone less in the long run.
Wendelin Van Draanen
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The room fell quiet. And as I read down the list of over one hundred and fifty eight-grade boys, I realized that to me, there had only ever been one boy.
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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You want me to be a man,older than you, who goes by the name of Roullard.
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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So there I was, with the two hottest girls on campus, having lunch. I was the man, the envy of every other guy in our school. Buddy, I was miserable. -Bryce Loski
Wendelin Van Draanen