Author's Note: So, I finally read it. My friends have been driving me crazy about how good the book is, and after them telling me about two billion times, I read it. And must I say, it was FANTASTIC, but I'm probably sure you already know that. So here are my favorite quotes (in no particular order) from the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower. En-joy, folks.
Disclaimer: I (obviously) don't own any rights to said book. All rights are reserved to whoever reserves them.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower Quotes
'"You see. Even Charlie stood up to his bully. You see. "And this guy got really red-faced. And he looked at me. Then, he looked at her. And he wound up and hit her hard across the face. I mean hard. I just froze because I couldn't believe he did it. It was not like him at all to hit anybody. He was the boy that made mix tapes with themes and hand-colored covers until he hit my sister and stopped crying. The weird part is that my sister didn't do anything. She just looked at him very quietly. It was so weird. My sister goes crazy if you eat the wrong kind of tuna, but here was this guy hitting her, and she didn't say anything. She just got soft and nice. And she asked me to leave, which I did. After the boy had left, she said that they were "going out" and not to tell mom or dad what happened. I guess he stood up to his bully.'
'So this is my life, and I want you to know that I'm both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.'
'I think I will stop putting quotation marks around Nothing's name because it is annoying and disrupting my flow.'
'He also said that I should use the vocabulary words that I learn in class like "corpulent" and "jaundice." I would use them here, but I really don't think they are appropriate in this format. To tell you the truth, I don't know where they are appropriate to use. I'm not saying that you shouldn't know them. You should absolutely. But I just have never heard anyone use the words "corpulent" and "jaundice" ever in my life. That includes teachers. So, what's the point of using words nobody else knows or can say comfortably? I just don't understand that.' (SO TRUE.)
'"Do you always think this much, Charlie?" "Is that bad?" I just wanted someone to tell me the truth. "Not necessarily. It's just that sometimes people use thought to not participate in life. ""Is that bad?" "Yes."'
'I hate you. "My sister said it different than she said it to my dad. She meant it with me. She really did. "I love you," was all I could say in return. "You're a freak, you know that? You've always been a freak. Everyone says so. They always have. ""I'm trying not to be." Then, I turned around and walked to my room and closed my door and put my head under my pillow and let the quiet put things where they are supposed to be.'
'I wasn't raised very religiously because my parents went to Catholic school, but I do believe in God very much. I just never gave God a name, if you know what I mean.'
'My sister is still mad at me, but my dad said I did the right thing. I hope that I did, but it's hard to tell sometimes.'
'Mary Elizabeth is a very interesting person because she has a tattoo that symbolizes Buddhism and a belly button ring and wears her hair to make somebody mad, but when she's in charge of something, she acts like my dad when he comes home from a "long day.'
'I just think its bad when a boy looks at a girl and thinks that the way he sees the girl is better than the girl actually is. And I think it's bad when the most honest way a boy can look at a girl is through a camera.'
'My brother always hated making his bed, but he kept his clothes closet very organized. Go figure.'
'I always wanted to be on a sports team like that. I'm not exactly sure why, but I always thought it would be fun to have "glory days." Then, I would have stories to tell my children and golf buddies. I guess I could tell people about Punk Rocky and walking home from school and things like that. Maybe these are my glory days, and I'm not even realizing it because they don't involve a ball.'
'Sam and Patrick both agreed I looked handsome. Mary Elizabeth smiled. I think it was the first time in my life I ever felt like I looked "good." Do you know what I mean? That nice feeling when you look in the mirror and your hair's right for the first time in your life? I don't think we should base so much on weight, muscles, and a good hair day, but when it happens, it's nice. It really is.'
'"Charlie?" "Yes, sir?" It is important to say "sir" at these moments. And if they ever call you by your first-middle-last name, you better watch out. I'm telling you.'
'Little kids talk about the strangest things. They really do.'
'It's now 4 o'clock in the morning, which is the New Year even though it's still December 31, that is, until people sleep. I can't sleep. Everyone else is either asleep or having sex.'
'It's like when you are excited about a girl and you see a couple holding hands, and you feel so happy for them. And other times you see the same couple, and they make you so mad. And all you want is to always feel happy for them because you know that if you do, then it means that you're happy, too.'
'My dad kept giving me "love pats." Love pats are soft punches of encouragement that are administered on the knee, shoulder, and arm.'
'This other time, I saw a commercial for this movie about a man who was accused of murder, but he didn't commit the murder. A guy from M*A*S*H was the star of the movie. That's probably why I remember it. The commercial said that the whole movie was about him trying to prove that he was innocent and how he could go to jail anyway. That scared me a lot. It scared me how much it scared me. Being punished for something you did not do. Or being an innocent victim. It's just something that I never want to experience.'
'When I went to The Rocky Horror Picture Show that night, Mary Elizabeth was really mad because Craig didn't show up. Nobody knew why. Not even Sam. The problem was nobody was there to play Rocky, the muscular robot (I'm not quite sure what he is). After looking around at everybody, Mary Elizabeth turned to me. "Charlie, how many times have you seen the show?" "Ten." "Do you think you can play Rocky?" "I'm not cut and hunky." "It doesn't matter. Can you play him?" "I guess." "Do you guess or do you know?" "I guess." "Good enough." The next thing I know, I was wearing nothing but slippers and a bathing suit, which somebody painted gold. I don't know how these things happen to me sometimes.'
'I did get an erection, though, but not until later, in the parking lot of the Big Boy. That's when Mary Elizabeth asked me to the Sadie Hawkins' dance after she said, "You looked really good in your costume." I like girls. I really do.'
'"What if I don't want to do anything sexual with her (Mary-Elizabeth)?" "Just say you're not ready." "Does that work?" "Sometimes." I wanted to ask Sam about the other side of "sometimes," but I didn't want to be too personal, and I didn't want to know deep down. I wish I could stop being in love with Sam. I really do.'
'I didn't feel like reading that night, so I went downstairs and watched a half-hour-long commercial that advertised an exercise machine. They kept flashing a 1-800 number, so I called it. The woman who picked up the other end of the phone was named Michelle. And I told Michelle that I was a kid and did not need an exercise machine, but I hoped she was having a good night. That's when Michelle hung up on me. And I didn't mind a bit.'
'Girls are weird, and I don't mean that offensively. I just can't put it any other way.'
'"Do you like the record?" she asked real quiet. "Very much." I really did, too. It was beautiful. "Charlie?" "Uh-huh?" "Do you like me?" "Uh-huh." "You know what I mean?" "Uh-huh." "Are you nervous?" "Uh-huh." "Don't be nervous." "Okay. "'
'And she says she wants to expose me to all these great things. And to tell you the truth, I don't really want to be exposed to all these great things if it means that I'll have to hear Mary Elizabeth talk about all the great things she exposed me to all the time.'
'I stared at my reflection and the trees behind it for a long time. Not thinking anything. Not feeling anything. Not hearing the record. For hours. Something really is wrong with me. And I don't know what it is.'
'It's like looking at all the students and wondering who's had their heart broken that day, and how they are able to cope with having three quizzes and a book report on top of that. Or wondering who did the heart breaking. And wondering why. Especially since I knowthat if they went to another school, the person who had their heart broken would have had their heart broken by somebody else, so why does it have to be so personal?'
'I kept looking at the mom, trying to imagine what she must have looked like when she was young. If she was married. If her little boy was an accident or planned. And if that made a difference.'
'But because things change. And friends leave. And life doesn't stop for anybody.'
'I was in my bed trying to figure out why sometimes you can wake up and go back to sleep and other times you can't.'
'Sometimes, I think Bill forgets that I am sixteen. But I am very happy that he does.'
'I almost didn't get an A in math, but then Mr. Carlo told me to stop asking "why?" all the time and just follow the formulas. So, I did. Now, I get perfect scores on all my tests. I just wish I knew what the formulas did. I honestly have no idea.'
'He was wearing his old graduate school T-shirt. Which was Brown. The school. Not the color.'
'"Why buy a camera when you only need it three times a year?"'
'The great thing about my mom's purse is that no matter what you need at any given moment, she has it. When I was little, I used to call it the "first-aid kit" because that's all we needed back then. I still can't figure out how she does it.'
'I love my mom so much. I don't care if that's corny to say. I think on my next birthday, I'm going to buy her a present. I think that should be the tradition. The kid gets gifts from everybody, and he buys one present for his mom since she was there, too. I think that would be nice.'
'Mr. Small got up on the stage and asked everyone to refrain from applause until all the names were read and all the diplomas were handed out. I should mention that this didn't work last year either.'
'On the way home for the party, my Ohio cousins lit up another joint. This time, I took a hit, but they still called me a "pussy." I don't know why. Maybe that's just what Ohio cousins do. That and tell jokes. "What has 32 legs and 1 tooth?" "What?" we all asked. "A West Virginia unemployment line." Things like that.'
'Nobody in our family is rich, but it seems like everybody saves up just enough for these kind of events, and we all pretend we're rich for a day.'
'It was about one o'clock in the morning when it suddenly occurred to me. "Oh my God!" I said. "What's wrong, Charlie?" "Tomorrow's a school day!" I don't think I could have made them laugh harder.'
'This one kid with crooked teeth named Leonard called me a "teacher's pet" in the hallway after Bill's class, but I didn't mind because I think he missed the point somewhere.'
'The one thing that really helped Sam through her week was her lunch with Craig. She said she wanted to see him to have some kind of "closure, " and I guess she was lucky enough to get it because Craig was nice enough to tell her that she was right to break up with him. And that she was a special person. And that he was sorry and wished her well. It's strange the times people choose to be generous. The best part was that Sam said she didn't ask him about the girls he might be dating even though she wanted to know. She wasn't bitter. She was sad, though. But it was a hopeful kind of sad. The kind of sad that just takes time.'
'I don't know. I guess there could always be someone to blame.'
'I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won't tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn't change the fact that they were upset. And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn't really change the fact that you have what you have. Good and bad.'
'Maybe it's good to put things in perspective, but sometimes, I think that the only perspective is to really be there.'
'It's okay to feel things. And be who you are about them.'
'Tomorrow, I start my sophomore year of high school. And believe it or not, I'm really not that afraid of going. I'm not sure if I will have the time to write any more letters because I might be too busy trying to "participate. " So, if this does end up being my last letter, please believe that things are good with me, and even when they're not, they will be soon enough. And I will believe the same about you. Love always, Charlie.'
Sorry is there were any grammatical mistakes, it's a bit rushed since school starts tomorrow. *cue sad face*
