Ellen Hopkins

“It was the exact oppositefor me. At first all Iwanted was sex with her,but soon I wanted more.More sex, yes, in unusualplaces, and all different kinds.But that wasn’t all. I wantedher to fill the empty spacesleft by a father who neveronce praised me, ‘friends’ whoused me, an ice princess momwho raised me with glass kisses.”

“Believe it or not, I sold my first novel, 'Crank,' with only seventy-five pages complete. It was in verse then, and it was hard-hitting then.”

“I felt so fine I didn't once overanalyze the perfect emotion, budding inside. The one I'd always feared most.”

“The things they say!A truck driver would blush.I would never talk that wayto Trevor he walks on water.I want him to think I do too.For a while, he did, or at leasthe pretended to.I did things with TrevorI wouldn't dare to confessto anyone—things I didn'tknow anyone did.But he wanted me to,so I did. That's what you dowhen you love someone,right?”

“Aloneeverything changes.Some might call it distorted realitybut it's exactly the place I need to be.”

“In a woman's womb another chance to makethe world a better place.”

“I don’t know449that much about the Bible, other than it waswritten thousands of years ago, which dilutesits relevance. However, I know its faithfulfollowers tend to cherry-pick verses to suittheir needs, the same way they cherry-pickwords or scenes from other books to labelobscene.”

“People inspire me. Everyone is such an individual and has unique stories. I'm a voyeur. I eavesdrop. Sometimes I ask questions. And sometimes people just want to tell me their stories.”

“I'll Stay...leave...me....I'll...follow...you.”

“Can a dream be wrong? Aren't dreams God's way of telling you things?”

“God wasn't love, couldn't be love. Because for me, love was a corpse.”

“Love is more than blind. It's brain-dead.”

“Empty is the perfect state of being. Nothing inside to anchor you. Nothing inside to chain you down, keep you from living your dreams. Empty, almost weightless, you are an eyelash afloat on a blink of breeze. You can rise about tension and worry, loosed from the grip of gravity. Adrift in thermal lift, you ride the wing of freedom and soar. Empty, you are Eve in Eden. Empty, you are what you were meant to be.”

“HOW do you define a word without concrete meaning? To each his own, the saying goes, soWHYpush to attain an ideal state of being that no two random people will agree isWHERE you want to be? Faultless. Finished. Incomparable. People can never be these, and anyway,WHENdid creating a flawless facade become a more vital goal than learning to love the personWHOlives inside your skin? The outside belongs to others. Only you should decide for you -WHATis perfect.”

“LightThat's how I feel-like the winter-fringedbreeze might scoopme up into its wings,flyaway with me trappedin its feathered embrace.I am a snowflake.A wisp of eiderdown,liberatedfrom gravity. My bodyis light. Ephemeral.My head is light.I want to swaybeneaththe weight of air,dizzy with thought.Light filters throughmy closed eyelids.The sun,chasing shadows,tells me I'm notafloat in dreams.”

“Living means taking chances. Risks. Playing safe all the time is being dead inside, even if you happen to still be breathing.”

“I never actually plan sequels. They demand to be done.”

“There are people who think it's easier to write books in verse, and it's definitely not.”

“Home...Home....the word,...has...no...meaning”

“I felt angry, frustrated.I felt I didn't belong, not in my,church, not in my home, not in my skin.”