124 Quotes by Mindy McGinnis

If you’re quiet in the woods long enough, you’ll hear something die.

I stopped you because it’s easier to fantasize about violence than actually perform it,” she says a few minutes later. “Most people consider things they wouldn’t do in real life, and there’s enough visceral satisfaction in the thought to alleviate the emotion. In reality, hurting another person on purpose is not a simple task, and not everyone is up to it.

I’ve always known my body, its strength and purpose, the long muscles of my legs and the lean bulge of my biceps. This is different; this is an intimacy with my skeleton, from the exposed broken tips in my foot to the sharp corner of my jaw digging into the ground as I try to get comfortable. I’m learning the deeper parts of me, maybe even past the ones a doctor can name. Right down into my soft bits and then further, where things you can’t actually touch live.

I don’t like to come home. Other houses have warmth in them, the lines between the people who live there humming with unspent energy ready to unreel. Conversations from the past still hover in the air, waiting for the threads to be picked up again. The air here is cold, empty to the point of sterility. When I hear my name it’s shocking, a word that isn’t spoken. Taboo.

There’s a part of everyone deep down inside of them not meant for you.

So what happened?” Mom asks; there’s a tone of resignation, the sound of a parent who has tried really hard for a long time and realizes that the end of the tunnel doesn’t have a light so much as a black hole.

All my life people have told me how strong I am, like it’s the best thing I’ve got to offer. I know they mean it in all the ways – physically, emotionally, mentally – and I am. But I’m also tired, worn out from hurting and being expected to come out on top of everything – even a car crash. I’m exhausted in all the ways I’m supposed to be strong...

It all went the wrong way, like a carefully scripted scene I imagined ahead of time falling apart because nobody else knew their lines.

When animals make a stupid mistake, you laugh at them. A cat misjudges a leap. A dog looks overly quizzical about a simple object. These are funny things. But when a person doesn’t understand something, if they miscalculate and hit the brakes too late, blame is assigned. They are stupid. They are wrong. Teachers and cops are there to sort it out, with a trail of paperwork to illustrate the stupidity. The faults. The evidence and incidents of these things. We have entire systems in place to help decide who is what.