244 Quotes by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

We all fight our own private wars.

I don’t like remembering. Remembering makes me feel things. I don’t like to feel things. I’m thinking I could spend the rest of my life becoming an expert at forgetting.

The heart can get really cold if all you’ve known is winter.

Sometimes, all you have to do is tell people the truth. They won’t believe you. After that, they’ll leave you alone.

I had learned to hide what I felt. No, that’s not true. There was no learning involved. I had been born knowing how to hide what I felt.

I got to thinking that poems were like people. Some people you got right off the bat. Some people you just didn’t get – and never would get.

Why do we smile? Why do we laugh? Why do we feel alone? Why are we sad and confused? Why do we read poetry? Why do we cry when we see a painting? Why is there a riot in the heart when we love? Why do we feel shame? What is that thing in the pit of your stomach called desire?

All my friends thought I was a very happy human being. Because that’s how I acted- like a really happy human being. But all that pretending made me tired. If I acted the way I felt, then I doubt my friends would have really hung out with me. So the pretending wasn’t all bad. The pretending made me less lonely. But in another was, it made me more lonely because I felt like a fraud. I’ve always felt like a fake human being.

I had a feeling there was something wrong with me. I guess I was a mystery even to myself.