He didn't realize that simply by mingling among various lunch tables, he was befriending people in different crowds, weaving together the fringes of the cafeteria.

Although she was gregarious, she inadvertently separated herself from people because she was so often inside her own head, focusing on her creativity.

I figure I'll win the fight in twenty years or so anyways when I end up with a decent life and their unemployed and living at home.

In the minds of their peers, too often students become caricatures of themselves.

Studies have shown that, at least among students, popularity equals visibility.

If teachers are uncomfortable at their own school, they will pass on their uncertainties or negative attitude to students.

Being an outsider doesn't necessarily indicate any sort of social failing. We do not view a tuba player as musically challenged if he cannot play the violin.

The 1970s, fewer than 25% of US residents lived in counties in which the presidential candidate won by landslide. 30 years later, that percentage has nearly doubled.

Part of the problem is that people at our school don't listen. They just put on the headphones and tune out the world. It's intimidating.

The cafeteria made him feel like an observer rather than a participant in the high school experience.

How could he encapsulate in a pithy admissions-interview line all of his unique ideas and interests?

I was ironing my own clothes when I was 11 years old. My mental strength goes back to those days.

The kitchen oven is reliable, but it's made us lazy.

When my family decided to leave England I could not have been happier. I was sort of like - America seemed like the land of opportunity and, you know, it was Hollywood to me.

Poets and writers who are in love with the superlative all want to do more than they can.

The drama's done. Why then here does any one step forth? — Because one did survive the wreck.

I would cut off my right arm to be someone's lover.

I've been surrounded by dogs my whole life. I got a golden retriever a year after I was born.

I'm going to let love lead the way, always. And I was born with this blind - blind ambition, and it's kind of gotten me here to this point. And I think that I'll stick to it.

Casebook is my attempt at a love story. I had a vision of a difficult love.

I'm sure there was an educational angle to the trips (I think one was to the Ulster Museum) but it was the fun and banter I had with my friends I remember the most.