Applegate Quotes

Memories are precious ... they help tell us who we are.

I like colorful tales with black beginnings and stormy middles and cloudless blue-sky endings. But any story will do.

Yes," he said. "You were strong. You were brave. You were good. You mattered.

You can't have real pain without real love. You can't feel grief and loss and hurt without real love. Love is the only way you can ever be really hurt deep down.

Humans waste words. They toss them like banana peels and leave them to rot. Everyone knows the peels are the best part.

They think I'm too old to cause trouble. Old age is a powerful disguise.

Homework, I have discovered, involves a sharp pencil and thick books and long sighs.

It's hard to put into words. Gorillas are not complainers. We're dreamers, poets, philosophers, nap takers.

A good zoo," Stella said, "is a large domain. A wild cage. A safe place to be. It has room to roam and humans who don't hurt." She pauses, considering her words. "A good zoo is how humans make amends.

Humans. Sometimes they make chimps look smart.

I always tell the truth, Stella replies. Although I sometimes confuse the facts.

Imaginary friends are like books. We're created, we're enjoyed, we're dog-eared and creased, and then we're tucked away until we're needed again.

Is there anything sweeter than the touch of another as she pulls a dead bug from your fur?

Her eyes hold the pale moon in them, the way a still pond holds stars.

Right now I would give all the yogurt raisins in all the world for a heart made of ice.

Human can surprise you sometimes. An unpredictable species, Homo sapiens

The names are mine, but they're not me.

With enough time, you can get used to almost anything.

Different languages, different food, different customs. That's our neighborhood: wild and tangled and colorful. Like the best kind of garden.

Earth is the crossroads of every possible alien. We're the McDonald's next to the highway of the galaxy.

it's never to late to be what you might have been

Humans speak too much. They chatter like chimps, crowding the world with their noise even when they have nothing to say.

When I'm drawing a picture, I feel...quiet inside.

Love is alcohol.

And oh, god, how could so much regret and so much sweetness and so much sadness all be present in that single moment. I was already dead and missing my unlived life. I was already dead and Tobias was mourning. I tried to smile. For him.

It is a great gift indeed to love who you are.

And that's how we ended up discovering the evil horses that threatened all of humanity.

Tobias asked. "Weird? Weird?" Marco crowed. "The talking bird wants to know if getting information on the location of an alien from a whale, that you've just saved from sharks, by turning into dolphins . . . You're suggesting that's weird?

I was born in a place humans call central Africa, in a dense rain forest so beautiful, no crayons could ever do it justice.

Give me liberty or give me death.' A human named Patrick Henry said that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew before they came to conquer Earth that humans said things like that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew what they were getting into." -Aximili Esgarrouth Isthill

Death's gruesome face taunts: soulless eyes, crimson grimace. I really hate clowns.

But hunger, like food, comes in many shapes and colors.

Oh, I'm sure we could talk them into letting us in for nothing," Marco said. "Just tell them we're Animorphs." "Tell them we're what?" Rachel asked. "Idiot teenagers with a death wish," Marco said. "Animorphs." I tried the word out. It sounded okay.

Full emergency power to the engines. Ram the Blade ship.

Growing up gorilla is just like any other kind of growing up. You make mistakes. You play. You learn. You do it all over again.

You do not know me, but I am a juvenile delinquent. I do not trust authority figures, I probably will not graduate from high school, and statistics say my present rowdiness and vandalism will likely lead to more serious crimes. I am a dangerous fellow, and I am causing mayhem in this store. [...] There. I have now shamelessly destroyed the symmetry of this shelf, undoing hours of labor by underpaid store employees. If you could see me, you would be frightened.

People don’t understand the word ruthless. They think it means ‘mean.’ It’s not about being mean. It’s about seeing the bright, clear line that leads from A to B. The line that goes from motive to means. Beginning to end. It’s about seeing that bright, clear line and not caring about anything but the beautiful fact that you can see the solution. Not caring about anything else but the perfection of it.

It's OAT-freaking-MEAL!

Pain is life. Life is pain.

Humans. Violent but peace-loving. Passionate but cerebral. Humane but cruel. Impulsive but calculating. Generous but selfish. Humans. Altogether a contradictory and deeply flawed species. And yet...And yet, somehow I knew that they represented the best hope of the galaxy. Perhaps the only hope.

Oh, it's just a trash can. Chill out." (Marco) BAM! BAM! BAM! "Okay, so it's four trash cans," (Marco) " BAM! BAM! BAM! "Do you hate trash cans? Is that your problem? Do you just HATE TRASH CANS?!!" (Jake)

Making others feel safe is a fine way to spend your days.

When you forgive, you lose your anger, and when you lose your anger, you get weak. And when you're weak, you can get hurt all over again.

Romance Make eye contact. Show your form. Strut. Grunt. Throw a stick. Grunt some more. Make some moves. Romance is hard work. It looks easy on TV. I'm not sure I will ever get the hang of it.

Everyone has parents. It's unavoidable.

Humans. Rats have bigger hearts. Roaches have kinder souls. Flies have-

About chocolate: "This is what laughing tastes like.

Ninety percent of the trouble in this world comes from guys who think they have something to prove.

But mostly, I remembered what I’ve always believed. What my mom taught me. That while some things are just plain awful, most things in life can be seen either tragic or comic. And it’s your choice. Is life a big, long, tiresome slog from sadness to regret to guilt to resentment to self-pity? Or is life weird, outrageous, bizarre, ironic, and just stupid? Gotta go with stupid. It’s not the easy way out. Self-pity is the easiest thing in the world. Finding the humor, the irony, the slight justification for a skewed, skeptical optimism, that’s tough.

My visitors are often surprised when they see the TV Mack put in my domain. They seem to find it odd, the sight of a gorilla staring at tiny humans in a box. Sometimes I wonder, though: Isn't the way they stare at me, sitting in my tiny box, just as strange?

Besides, the more you listen, the more you learn.

But sometimes things happen that aren’t so good. When they occur, I’ve learned that there’s not much you can do except stand tall and reach deep.

Hollows are proof that something bad can become something good with enough time and care and hope" -Red

It’s not so bad, I wanted to tell the little boy. With enough time, you can get used to almost anything.

Anger is precious. A silverback uses his anger to maintain order and warn his troop of danger. When my father beat his chest, it was to say, Beware, listen, I am in charge. I am angry to protect you, because that is what I was born to do. Here in my domain, there is no one to protect.

Fun fact, Jackson. You can't see sound waves, but you can hear music.

The world we live in might not be free from pain, but you have the ability to create for yourself a world free from struggle.

My favorite color is rainbow.

You know a guy is funny when a week later you can still feel the little knives he stuck in you.

But even I have enough sense to know the words “we have to win” are the first four steps on the road to hell.

I felt my throat tighten and constrict. My hearts ached with a pain I could not describe. I wondered if I were dying. I felt not sadness. I felt pity. For myself. For us all. We were children no longer. And we never would be again.

Days have a way of slipping past like raindrops in a river.

There is beauty in stillness and grace in acceptance.

Today, tomorrow, sooner or later, you will meet someone who is lost, just as you yourself have been lost, and as you will be lost again someday. And when that happens, it is your duty to say "I've been lost, too. Let me help you find your way home.

I was Jake's insurance policy. He thought maybe he wouldn't have to use me. He hoped, anyway. But down deep he knew, and I knew, and we both hid the truth from the others because Cassie couldn't let Jake make that decision, and Tobias couldn't let me, and those two, by loving us, would have screwed everything up. It was a war, after all. A war we had to win.

Don't be so sure,' Cassie said. 'We're fighting for Mother Earth. She has some tricks up her sleeves.' 'Good grief,' Marco said. 'Let's all buy Birkenstocks and go hug some trees.

friendship doesn’t have to be hard. That sometimes we let the world make it hard.

My life is flashing lights and pointing fingers and uninvited visitors. Inches away, humans flatten their little hands against the wall of glass that separates us. The glass says you are this and we are that and that is how it will always be.

Trees can’t tell jokes. But we can certainly tell stories. And if all you hear is the whisper of leaves, don’t worry. Most trees are introverts at heart.

If you can talk, you can sing. If you can walk, you can dance.

Love is pretty important. It's like wearing a suit of armor. It makes you strong.

I wanted so much to live. I wanted so much to stay and not to leave. In a moment no answer would matter to me, but just the same, I wanted to know what I guess any dying person wants to know. "Answer this, Ellimist: Did I . . . did I make a difference? My life, and my . . . my death . . . was I worth it? Did my life really matter?" "Yes," he said. "You were brave. You were strong. You were good. You mattered." "Yeah. Okay, then. Okay, then.

Meantime, I was going to enjoy the magic while I could.

I like not knowing everything. It makes things more interesting.

Imagine being the only two free humans in all the world

Human humour often consists of pretending to wish something does not really wish.

Maybe it's easier to forgive others once you've learned how to forgive yourself.

Interesting. Claws and teeth and ferocity mixed with the subtlety to manipulate creatures larger than itself. A worthy creature.

Life changes, so you must hope.

The monsters in our valley were destroyed that day. Only a very few survived. But that was all right, because we didn't need monsters anymore. We had become them.

When you’ve been through the worst with someone, you appreciate the best.

Old age," she says, "is a wonderful disguise.

I felt exalted. It was my moment. This was my place and my time and my own perfection. I was no longer afraid. Weird. If I'd had a mouth I'd have smiled. I said. No one moved. I asked. No answer. I said, almost laughing.

What's love? Something that lasts a week or a month and that's all you can except? Or is it just that some loves have a short shelf life? You know, like yogurt: after a week or two they go bad. And how do you recognize the other kind of love, the kind that isn't like yogurt? The kind that's more like... I don't know, like peanut butter, that lasts forever and always tastes good?

I just want to get on a table, dance on someone's tater tots, and wait for the hall monitor to drag me away

Christopher flushed, gaped, and then laughed. I gave him credit for that. Lots of guys can laugh at someone else. Chistopher could laugh at himself. You see a lot less of that.

But everyone needs to hope.

She spoke about her family she'd lost. She spoke about her secret hopes and fears and longings. She had love to give, and no one to give it to.

I've fought for more than three years. I was just thirteen when I started. I'm sixteen now, though that fact, like so many facts, has been deliberately obscured in the secret accounts we've kept. I'm a sixteen-year-old kid named Jake Berenson, and I am the leader of the Animorphs.

My family tree spreads wide as well. I am a great ape, and you are a great ape, and so are chimpanzees and orangutans and bonobos, all of us distant and distrustful cousins. I know this is troubling. I too find it hard to believe there is a connection across time and space, linking me to a race of ill-mannered clowns. Chimps. There's no excuse for them.

...I didn't want to miss a moment of what little life I had left. I wanted to drink in the stars. I wanted to feel the fuzzy wings of the owlets. I wanted to stretch my roots just a tiny bit farther before the night was through. I wanted to indulge in some quiet contemplation about life and love and what it all meant... "I've been thinking... There's no point in my worrying about tomorrow. It will come soon enough.

So, there we were. The five of us - Marco, Tobias, Rachel, Cassie, and me. Five normal mallrats heading home. Sometimes I think about that one, last moment when we were still just normal kids. It's like it was a million years ago, like it was some totally different group of kids. You know what I was afraid of right then? I was afraid of admitting to Tom that I hadn't made the team. That was as scary as life got back then. Five minutes later, life got a lot scarier.

All day, I watch humans scurry from store to store. They pass their green paper, dry as old leaves and smelling of a thousand hands, back and forth and back again. They hunt frantically, stalking, pushing, grumbling. Then they leave, clutching bags filled with things - bright things, soft things, big things - but no matter how full the bags, they always come back for more. Humans are clever indeed. They spin pink clouds you can eat. They build domains with flat waterfalls. But they are lousy hunters.

Here’s the thing, Jackson. Life is messy. It’s complicated. It would be nice if life were always like this.” He drew an imaginary line that kept going up and up. “But life is actually a lot more like this.” He made a jiggly line that went up and down like a mountain range. “You just have to keep trying.

Ah." Ax nodded. "She does not understand how menacing we are." He tapped her on the shoulder. "You do not know me," he said, "but I am a juvenile delinquent. I do not trust authority figures, I probably will not graduate from high school, and statistics say my present rowdiness and vandalism will likely lead to more serious crimes. I am a dangerous fellow and I am causing mayhem in this store." He reached behind her and pulled three jars of baby food from the top shelf. Shoved them behind a box of macaroni. Shuffled the Chess Whizzed in front of the Marshmallow Fluff. Tossed a bag of lady's shavers onto a bag of hamburger buns. "There. I have now shamelessly destroyed the symmetry of this shelf, undoing hours of labor by underpaid store employees. If you could see me, you would be frightened." "If she could see you, she'd have you committed," Marco muttered.

People don't understand the word ruthless. They think it means "mean." It's not about being mean. It's about seeing the bright, clear line that leads from A to B. The line that goes from motive to means. Beginning to end. It's about seeing that bright, clear line and not caring about anything but the beautiful fact that you can see the solution. Not caring about anything else but the perfection of it.

I laughed. 'You almighty Andalites. There is no limit to your arrogance, is there? Well, let me tell you something: we may be simple people. But we don't use biology to invent monsters. And we don't enslave other species. And we don't unleash a plague of parasites on the galaxy, endangering every other free species, and then go swaggering around like the lords of the universe. No, we're too simple for that. We're too stupid to lie and manipulate. We're too stupid to be ruthless. We're too stupid to know how to build powerful weapons designed to annihilate our enemies. Until you came, Andalite, we were too stupid to know how to kill.' -Dak Hamee

Not long ago, a little boy stood before my glass, tears streaming down his smooth red cheeks. “He must be the loneliest gorilla in the world,” he said, clutching his mother’s hand. At times like that, I wish humans could understand me the way I can understand them. It’s not so bad, I wanted to tell the little boy. With enough time, you can get used to almost anything.

I've always believed that to some extent you get to decide for yourself what your life will be like. You can either look at the world and say "Oh, isn't it all so tragic, so grim, so awful." Or you can look at the world and decide that it's mostly funny. If you step back far enough from the details, everything gets funny. You say war is tragic. I say, isn't it crazy the way people will fight over nothing? People fight wars to control crappy little patches of empty desert, for crying out loud. It's like fighting over an empty soda can. It's not so much tragic as it is ridiculous. Asinine! Stupid! You say, isn't it terrible about global warming? And I say, no, it's funny. We're going to bring on global warming because we ran too many leaky air conditioners? We used too much spray deodorant, so now we'll be doomed to sweat forever? That's not sad. That's irony.

Jake, our fearless leader. On a crazed kamikaze mission. I’d never seen him like this. Even in our lowest moments, he’d always been steady. Resolute. He weighed the costs, made a decision, forged ahead. And I’d always wondered how he did it. How he kept it straight in his mind. Yeerks. Visser One. Aliens conquering humans, conquering the planet. Fighting the enemy without becoming like them. How did he sort through all that? The emotions, the ethical dilemmas, the moral crises? How did he wrap his brain around it all so he could make logical decisions? Smart decisions. The kind that saved the lives of his team. The kind that set the enemy back a small step or two. But now I knew. Jake didn’t understand any of it better than the rest of us did. If he defeated the Yeerks, freed humanity, rescued Earth, that was good. But that was just a bonus. His main goal was much simpler. To save his family. That goal was what had given him strength. That goal was what had kept him sane. Allowed him to retain a center of calm focus amid the awful chaos. His family.