Ellen Wittlinger Quotes

• “People changed lots of other personal things all the time. They dyed their hair and dieted themselves to near death. They took steroids to build muscles and got breast implants and nose jobs so they'd resemble their favorite movie stars. They changed names and majors and jobs and husbands and wives. They changed religions and political parties. They moved across the country or the world — even changed nationalities. Why was gender the one sacred thing we weren’t supposed to change? Who made that rule?”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “But you can only lie about who you are for so long without going crazy.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “I watched her walk away, first thinking: good riddance – who needs this abuse? And then after a minute thinking: she never really understood me anyway. Which rapidly changed to: I never understood her at all. And before long I was watching her small back disappear and thinking: there goes the only person who ever gave a damn about me.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “It's a lie, you know, to pretend that nothing is important to you. It's hiding. Believe me, I know because I hid for a long time. But now I won't do it anymore. The truth is bioluminescent. I don't lie, and I don't waste time on people who do.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “you give everyone the benefit of the doubt. they don't always deserve it.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “I trust the red sun setting,
  
  the leafless November trees.
  
  On Monday morning I look foward
  
  fearlessly to Friday’s eve.
  
  But humans are not as reliable
  
  as nature, as trees.
  
  I wonder if you’ll come back;
  
  I trust only that you leave.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “That's what I love about writing. Once you get the words down on paper, in print, they start to make sense. It's like you don't know what you think until it dribbles from your brain down your arm and into your hand and out through your fingers and shows up on the computer screen, and you read it and realize: That's really true; I believe that.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “when there's an elephant in the room, you can't pretend it isn't there and just discuss the ants.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “i was in love with the sound of the slamming door, it sounded the way i felt, like damn you to hell! and i hate what you're doing to me! and Life sucks.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “When people say they love you, you just have to decide to believe them, because you'll never know for sure.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “well, it sounds strange, but when i think of God, i think of a soft whirring noise - like a spinning ball of energy - something i can tap into when i need it.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “nobody is like anybody else. that's why nobody gets along with anybody else.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “i want to look at all my tears, she said. which made me shiver”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “...and she said we all had to find God inside ourselves, in the things we loved most.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “sometimes people think they're above the laws the rest of us live by. they're blind to their own imperfections.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “the whole idea of boys being people you would actually choose to spend time with was pretty much totally incomprehensible to me. i could never think of anything to say to them, and they seemed equally dumbstruck by my presence.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “It seems obvious to me that the more queer books there are in the wolrd, the more queer kids we reach with the message that they are not alone, the fewer LGBT kids become one of these grim statistics.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “what's normal, she said. adults are all just weird in different ways.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “When I decided I was a boy, I realized that if I wanted to pass, I'd have to learn to walk differently, talk differently, dress differently, basically act differently than I did as a girl. But why did we need to act at all?”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “well, you just have to make sure that you're his escape”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “i believe in anything it would be nature - trees, clouds, rain - the life cycles that begin and end, season after season. that makes sense to me - nature as God.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “bunny was a good soul and a strong believer but she would have been that way whether she went to church or not, wouldn't she. church doesn't make you a better person.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “I'm starting to think I'll probably never have a girlfriend, which would be okay too. On those few occasions when a girl has actually flirted with me, tipped her head sideways and laughed at some stupid remark, all it did was make me angry. It seemed like she was playing a game with idiotic rules. First you laugh, then you tell a pretty lie, then you stick your tongue in each other's mouths, then you say something really mean and hurtful to each other, then you go off to find somebody else who wants to play the game. This is an activity for intelligent people? I think not.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “My name is Mike. Instantly forgettable. Unlike Heather. What a breathless little name that is.”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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• “But I knew the first question Mom asked Gail was, Is it a boy or a girl? Because, for some reason, that is the first thing everybody wants to know the minute you're born. Should we label it with pink or blue? Wouldn't want anyone to mistake the gender of an infant! What is that so important?”

  Ellen Wittlinger

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