Adolescence
Quotes - Ambition robs you of your childhood
“Here,
every breath is heard, every evil thought is known. It might be beautiful to
look at, but it is abysmal to exist in; a sweet, sad dream. And while I could
think of a million places that I would rather be, I fear that I will never have
the nerve to leave. I fear that Crossmore is too deep in me, and I would not
know how to exist elsewhere.”
―
Chloe Michelle Howarth, Sunburn
“Us
intellectuals keep anti-social hours. It does us good.”
―
Sue Townsend, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4
“That
moment when you are tired of being treated like a child, tired of adolescence
too, that suddenly opening but quickly closing passage, when you irreversibly
want to grow up, is a dangerous time.”
―
John Irving, In One Person
“Ambition
robs you of your childhood. The moment you want to become an adult, in any way,
something in your childhood dies.”
―
John Irving, In One Person
“In
increments both measurable and not, our childhood is stolen from us, not always
in one momentous event, but often in a series of small robberies, which add up
to the same loss.”
―
John Irving, In One Person
“Adolescence,
while it’s a place I like to visit periodically, shouldn’t be a lifestyle.
Tragic maturity, while appropriate at times, will kill your soul if practiced
perpetually.”
―
T.C. Luoma, The Testosterone Principles 2: Manhood and Other Stuff
“During
the period of her adolescence, her burgeoning womanhood, high school and
throughout college, her awareness of the other sex had been an involuntary
thing that crept up on her unasked for and unwanted. She would come into
contact with these guys, or boys really, who she really didn’t even like all
that much. She could discern the weakness in their characters in a heartbeat,
see into the core of their insecurities with ease. Figure out what they were
hungry for in life and discern their superficialities. And yet it was these
guys who would make her palms moist with sweat when they approached, whose
presence sucked the air out of her chest, whose off hand comments to her made
her speechless and inarticulate. Not the top-of-the-class guy with his subtle
opinions and depth of character, but the attractive, muscular idiot.”
―
Hannah Matus, A Second Look
“Gef
became the receptacle of all Irving’s misspent wants and frustrations, a focal
point for the things the family could not say aloud. He could have Jim’s
broader knowledge, Voirrey’s adolescence, and Margaret’s witchery. He could be
the son from whom Jim had become estranged, the friend Voirrey did not find in
Peel, the desirous confidante that Margaret could not find in her husband.”
―
Thomm Quackenbush, The Curious Case of the Talking Mongoose
“Having
never smoked, I hacked after inhaling. The taste was bitter, a flavor marking
the twilight of my childhood.”
―
Rafael Moscatel, The Secret Adoption: A Family Memoir
“In
adolescence I searched diligently—even dangerously—for some sheet-music kind of
love that would fulfil the erotic dreams the literature read to me in my
childhood had coloured so romantically. In this fantasy I would be the
cherished object of some great man's total preoccupation. In return I would
become his perfumed slave. Of course I was willing to adopt this attitude of
abject prostration only before someone who never asked me to do anything I
didn't like.”
―
Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant
“Refrain
(by Jan Warren)
Pick
up your clothes, make your bed, is that a basket of ironing stuffed into your
closet? How can you find anything in there? Clean it out, you´re not going to
the park until it's done and I want you to take your sister with you, don't
give me that look, just wait until your father comes home; I've never seen such
a lazy kid, how did I ever get lucky enough to have you to deal with, you've got
a chip on your shoulder; no, you can´t spend the night, because I said so,
straighten that bedspread; wake up, you´ll be late for school, come right home
after, I need you to go to the store and don't take forever, dinner has to be
sometime tonight; set the table, make the salad, clean out the wastepaper
basket, feed the dogs, sweep the floor, don't let the flies in, close that
door, do you think money grows on trees, don't give me that look, just wait
till your father gets home; who was that on the phone, why is he calling here?
don´t talk to strangers, who was that walking with you, you better not have
them hanging around, because I said so, you're too young, he's a boy, that's
different, because I said so, that skirt is too short, take off that makeup, you
look like a hussy in those fishnet stockings, where did you get that, you'll
have to take it back, don't give me that look, just wait till your father gets
home; the store called me today--you've taken practically nude pictures, you
better stop or I'll tell your father, you're getting too big for your britches
young lady, nice girls don't do things like that, keep going and you'll see
what happens... don't give me that look...”
―
Hettie Jones, Aliens at the Border: the Writing Workshop, Bedford Hills
Correctional Facility
