I wonder if he’d been as beautiful as Dante. And I wondered why I thought that.

See, the thing about that word, Sharkey, the F-word, is that sometimes I make that word do too much work. I mean, I say that word as if it clearly articulates what I’m really feeling....

For the music to be over so soon. For the music to be over when it had just begun. That was really sad.

He was still experimenting with kissing girls even though he said he’d rather be kissing boys. That’s exactly what he said. I didn’t know exactly what to think about that, but Dante was going to...

I wondered if my smile was as big as hers. Maybe as big. But not as beautiful.

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

Rafael?””Yeah?”„Do we all have monsters?”„Yes.”„Why does God give us so many monsters?”„You want to know my theory?”„Sure.”„I think it’s other people who give us monsters. Maybe God doesn’t have anything to do with it.

The summer sun was not meant for boys like me. Boys like me belonged to the rain.

Words could be like food – they felt like something in your mouth. They tasted like something.

I couldn’t exactly storm away in anger. I’d just have to close my eyes and shut out the universe.

The problem with parents is that they’re adults.

Some boys… Are perfect shits. & other boys are very, very beautiful.

Summer was here again. Summer, summer, summer. I loved and hated summers. Summers had a logic all their own and they always brought something out in me. Summer was supposed to be about freedom and...

Summertime. It was a song. It was a season. I wondered if that season would ever live inside of me.

I mean, okay, let’s say we’re all going to get better. Let’s just pretend we will. Fine. Where are we going to go after we get better? What are we going to do with all...

I was getting an A for work. But not for talent. The story of my life.

See, this is the way I see it. Not all anger is the same. Because there are different kids of anger. And you know what else – sometimes, anger is a virtue. As long as...

You’re fighting this war in the worst way possible.” “I don’t know how to fight it, Dad.””You should ask for help,” he said.”I don’t know how to do that, either.

I thought of what my mom had said. “You talk like a man.” It was easier to talk like a man than to be one.

Summer was a book of hope. That’s why I loved and hated summers. Because they made me want to believe.

But the thing is, I didn’t make my friends happy and they didn’t make me happy. All we did was get stoned out of our minds. That didn’t have anything to do with happiness.