“
What the hell is that?" I laughed.
"It's my fox hat."
"Your fox hat?"
"Yeah, Pudge. My fox hat."
"Why are you wearing your fox hat?" I asked.
"Because no one can catch the motherfucking fox.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Don't you know who you love, Pudge? You love the girl who makes you laugh and shows you porn and drinks wine with you. You don't love the crazy, sullen bitch.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Before I got here, I thought for a long time that the way out of the labyrinth was to pretend that it did not exist, to build a small, self-sufficient world in the back corner of the endless maze and to pretend that I was not lost, but home.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
So why don't you go home for vacations?' I asked her.
I'm just scared of ghosts, Pudge. And home is full of them.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
It's the eternal struggle, Pudge. The good versus the naughty. ...
Sometimes you lose a battle. But mischief always wins the war.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
She said, "It's not life or death, the labyrinth."
"Um, okay. So what is it?"
"Suffering," she said. "Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you. That's the problem. Bolivar was talking about the pain, not about the living or dying. How do you get out of the labyrinth of suffering?... Nothing's wrong. But there's always suffering, Pudge. Homework or malaria or having a boyfriend who lives far away when there's a good-looking boy lying next to you. Suffering is universal. It's the one thing Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims are all worried about.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
We are greater than the sum of our parts.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
It is worth it to leave behing my minor life for grander maybes
-Miles "Pudge
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Oh, God, Alaska, I love you. I love you,' and the Colonel whispered, 'I'm so sorry, Pudge. I know you did,' and I said, 'No. Not past tense.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Oh God, Alaska, I love you. I love you," and the Colonel whispered, "I'm so sorry, Pudge. I know you did," and I said, "No. Not past tense." She wasn't even a person anymore, just flesh rotting, but I loved her present tense.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Right, well, he'd been sick for a while and his nurse said to him, 'You seem to be feeling better this morning,' and Isben looked at her and said, 'On the contrary,' and then he died.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
I’m just scared of ghosts, Pudge. And home is full of them.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Pudge, what you must understand about me is that I am a deeply unhappy person.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Too pissed off to cry, I said, 'This is only making me hate her. I don't want to hate her. And what's the point, if that's all it's making me do?' Still refusing to answer how and why questions. Still insisting on an aura of mystery.
I leaned forward, head between by knees, and the Colonel placed a head on my upper back. 'The point is that there are always alsweres, Pudge.' And then he pushed air out between his pursed lips and I could hear the angry quiver in his voice as he repeated, 'There are always answers. We just have to be smart enough.'
~Miles/Pudge and Chip/the Colonel, pg 168
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
So she became impulsive, scared by her inaction into perpetual action. When the Eagle confronted her with the expulsion, maybe she blurted out Marya's name because it was the first that came to mind, because in that moment she didn't want to get expelled and she couldn't think past that moment. She was scared, sure. But more importantly, maybe she'd been scared of being paralyzed by fear again.
~Miles/Pudge on Alaska, pg 120-121
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Yeah, Pudge is adorable / but you want incorrigible / so Jake is more endurable / 'cause he's so - damn. Damn. I almost had four rhymes on adorable. But all I could think of was unfloorable, which isn't even a word." - Takumi
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Pudge, my friend, we are indefuckingstructible.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
And we'll call you...hmmm. Pudge."
"Huh?"
"Pudge," the Colonel said. "Because you're skinny. It's called irony, Pudge. Heard of it? Now, let's go get some cigarettes and start this year off right.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
You know what's lame, Pudge? I really care about her. I mean, we were hopeless. Badly matched. But still. I mean, I said I loved her... I mean, it's stupid to miss someone you didn't even get along with. but I don't know, it was nice, you know, having someone you could always fight with.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Hey Pudge," the Colonel said. "What do you think of a truce?"
"It reminds me of when the Germans demanded that the U.S. surrender at the Battle of the Bulge," I said. "I guess I'd say to this truce offer what General McAuliffe said to that one: Nuts.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
C'mon Pudge. I'm teasing. You have to be tough. I didn't know how bad it was-- and I'm sorry, and they'll regret it-- but you have to be tough.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Things never happened like I imagined them" - Pudge (Looking For Alaska)
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Pudge," She shook her head and sipped the cold coffee and wine-"Pudge, what you must understand about me is that I am a deeply unhappy person.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!' he screamed.
'So that's Sara,' I said.
'Yes.'
'She seems nice.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
if people were rain ,
i was drizzle
and she was a hurricane .
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
The pigs can't stop the fox; I'm too quick,' Takumi said to himself. "I can rhyme while I run; I'm that slick.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
I know. I know. Just--hold on." He pulled out a thick headband. It was brown, with a plush fox head on the front. He put it on his head.
I laughed. "What the hell is that?"
"It's my fox hat."
"Your fox hat?"
"Yeah, Pudge. My fox hat."
"Why are you wearing your fox hat?" I asked.
"Because no one can catch the motherfucking fox.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Pudge was quivering like a weeble toy likely to topple over any second
”
”
Saira Viola (Crack Apple And Pop!)
“
I remember always being baffled by other children. I would be at a birthday party and watch the other kids giggling and making faces, and I would try to do that, too, but I wouldn't understand why. I would site there with the tight elastic thread of the birthday hat parting the pudge of my underchin, with the grainy frosting of the cake bluing my teeth, and I would try to figure out why it was fun.
”
”
Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)
“
Nothing's wrong. But there's always suffering, Pudge. Homework or malaria or having a boyfriend who lives far away when there's a good-looking boy lying next to you. Suffering is universal.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Tuesday—we had school for the first time. Madame O’Malley had a moment of silence at the beginning of French class, a class that was always punctuated with long moments of silence, and then asked us how we were feeling.
“Awful,” a girl said.
“En français,” Madame O’Malley replied. “En français.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Before I got here, I thought for a long time that the way out of the labyrinth was to pretend that it did not exist, to build a small, self-sufficient world in a back corner of, the endless maze and to pretend that I was not lost, but home. But that only led to a lonely life accompanied only by the last words of the looking for a Great Perhaps, for real friends, and a more-than minor life.
And then i screwed up and the Colonel screwed up and Takumi screwed up and she slipped through our fingers. And there's no sugar-coating it: She deserved better friends.
When she fucked up, all those years ago, just a little girl terrified. into paralysis, she collapsed into the enigma of herself. And I could have done that, but I saw where it led for her. So I still believe in the Great Perhaps, and I can believe in it spite of having lost her.
Beacause I will forget her, yes. That which came together will fall apart imperceptibly slowly, and I will forget, but she will forgive my forgetting, just as I forgive her for forgetting me and the Colonel and everyone but herself and her mom in those last moments she spent as a person. I know that she forgives me for being dumb and sacred and doing the dumb and scared thing. I know she forgives me, just as her mother forgives her. And here's how I know:
I thought at first she was just dead. Just darkness. Just a body being eaten by bugs. I thought about her a lot like that, as something's meal. What was her-green eyes, half a smirk, the soft curves of her legs-would soon be nothing, just the bones I never saw. I thought about the slow process of becoming bone and then fossil and then coal that will, in millions of years, be mined by humans of the future, and how they would their homes with her, and then she would be smoke billowing out of a smokestack, coating the atmosphere.
I still think that, sometimes. I still think that, sometimes, think that maybe "the afterlife" is just something we made up to ease the pain of loss, to make our time in the labyrinth bearable. Maybe she was just a matter, and matter gets recycled.
But ultimately I do not believe that she was only matter. The rest of her must be recycled, too. I believe now that we are greater than the sum of our parts. If you take Alaska's genetic code and you add her life experiences and the relationships she had with people, and then you take the size and shape of her body, you do not get her. There is something else entirety. There is a part of her knowable parts. And that parts has to go somewhere, because it cannot be destroyed. Although no one will ever accuse me of being much of a science student, One thing I learned from science classes is that energy is never created and never destroyed.
And if Alaska took her own life, that is the hope I wish I could have given her. Forgetting her mother, failing her mother and her friends and herself -those are awful things, but she did not need to fold into herself and self-destruct. Those awful things are survivable because we are as indestructible as we believe ourselves to be.
When adults say "Teenagers think they are invincible" with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are.
We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail.
So I know she forgives me, just as I forgive her. Thomas Eidson's last words were: "It's very beautiful over there." I don't know where there is, but I believe it's somewhere, and I hope it's beautiful.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
But there's always suffering, Pudge. Homework or malaria or having a boyfriend who lives far away when there's a good-looking boy lying next to you. Suffering is universal. It's the one thing Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims are all worried about.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Pudge: Sometimes I don’t get you.
Alaska:You never get me. That’s the whole point.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
I think she and I were talking about how much I adored skateboarding on the computer but how it would never even occur to me to try and step on a skateboard in real life, and then she said, 'Let's play Truth or Dare' and then you fucked her."
"Wait, you fucked her? In front of the Colonel?" Takumi cried.
"I didn't fuck her.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
I was so tired of her getting upset for no reason. The way she would get sulky and make references to the freaking oppressive nature of tragedy or whatever but then never said what was wrong, never have any goddamned reason to be sad. And I just think you ought to have a reason. My girlfriend dumped me, so I'm sad. I got caught smoking, so I'm pissed off. My head hurts, so I'm cranky. She never had a reason, Pudge. I was just so tired of putting up with her drama. And I just let her go. Christ.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Kevin doesn't just wake up with that spiky bedhead look, Pudge. He works for it. He loves that hair. They leave their hair products here, Pudge, because they have duplicates at home. All these boys do. And do you know why?''
''Because they're compensating for their tiny penises?'' i asked.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
And he couldn't know because he hadn't been left with an unkeepable promise, because he wasn't me.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
I don't expect to meet the man of my dream today, but if I do, then I guess if he's really the man of my dreams he won't reject me when he sees the pudge around my knees.
”
”
Wendy Shanker (The Fat Girl's Guide to Life)
“
I laughed. What the hell is that?
It's my fox hat.
Your fox hat?
Yeah, Pudge. My fox hat.
Why are you wearing your fox hat? I asked. Because no one can catch the motherfucking fox.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
It’s the eternal struggle, Pudge. The Good versus the Naughty.
”
”
John Green (Looking For Alaska)
“
Poor Pudge. Oh, poor poor Pudge. Do you want me to climb into bed with you and cuddle?"
"Well since you're offering--"
"NO! UP! NOW!
”
”
John Green
“
Pudge: Why do smoke so damn fast?
Alska: Y'all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
I mean, it's stupid to miss someone you didn't even get along with. But, I don't know, it was nice, you know, having someone you could always fight with."
"Fighting," I said, and then, confused, barely able to drive, I added, "is nice."
"Right. I don't know what I'll do now. I mean, it was nice to have her. I'm a mad guy, Pudge. What do I do with that?"
"You can fight with me," I said. I put my controller down and leaned back on our foam couch and was asleep. As I drifted off, I heard the Colonel say, "I can't be mad at you, you harmless skinny bastard.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
And as I walked back to give Takumi’s note to the Colonel, I saw that I would never know. I would never know her well enough to know her thoughts in those last minutes, would never know if she left us on purpose. But the not-knowing would not keep me from caring, and I would always love Alaska Young, my crooked neighbor, with all my crooked heart.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Yeah,” I said. “What is that? A bird? "It’s the swan,” he said. “Wow. A school with a swan. Wow.”
“That swan is the spawn of Satan. Never get closer to it than we are now.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
And I was left to ask, Did I help you toward a fate you didn't want, Alaska, or did I assist your willful self-destruction? Because they are different crimes, and I didn't know whether to feel angry at her for making me part of her suicide or just to feel angry at myself for letting her go.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
There are always answers, Pudge
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Mission accomplished' I said.
Pudge my friend we are indefuckingstructable.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Pudge: Sometimes I don’t get you.
Alaska:You never get me. That’s the whole point.
”
”
John Greeb
“
We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. - Pudge
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
I'm just scared of ghosts, Pudge. And home is full of them.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
What you must understand about me, Pudge, is that I’m a deeply unhappy person
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Why don't you go home for vacations?" I asked her. "I'm just scared of ghosts, Pudge, and home is full of them.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Pudge/Colonel:
"I am sorry that I have not talked to you before. I am not staying for graduation. I leave for Japan tomorrow morning. For a long time, I was mad at you. The way you cut me out of everything hurt me, and so I kept what I knew to myself.
But then even after I wasn't mad anymore, I still didn't say anything, and I don't even really know why. Pudge had that kiss,
I guess. And I had this secret.
You've mostly figured this out, but the truth is that I saw her that night, I'd stayed up late with Lara and some people, and then I was falling asleep and I heard her crying outside my back window. It was like 3:15 that morning, maybe, amd I walked out there and saw her walking through the soccer field. I tried to talk to her, but she was in a hurry. She told me that her mother was dead eight years that day, and that she always put flowers on her mother's grave on the anniversary but she forgot that year. She was out there looking for flowers, but it was too early-too wintry. That's how
I knew about January 10. I still have no idea whether it was suicide.
She was so sad, and I didn't know what to say or do. I think she counted on me to be the one person who would always say and do the right things to help her, but I couldn"t. I just thought she was looking for flowers. I didn't know she was going to go. She was drunk just trashed drunk, and I really didn't think she would drive or anything. I thought she would just cry herself to sleep and then drive to visit her mom the next day or something. She walked away, and then I heard a car start. I don't know what I was thinking.
So I let her go too. And I'm sorry. I know you loved her. It was hard not to."
Takumi
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Pudge," she said, faux-condescending, "the sound is an integral part of the artistic experience of this video game. Muting Decapitation would be like reading only every other word of Jane Eyre.
”
”
John Green
“
And then we heard a branch break. It might have been a deer, but the Colonel busted out anyway. A voice directly behind us said, "Don't run, Chipper," and the Colonel stopped, turned around, and returned to us sheepishly.
The Eagle walked toward us slowly, his lips pursed in disgust. He wore a white shirt and a black tie, like always.
He gave each of us in turn the Look of Doom.
"Y'all smell like a North Carolina tobacco field in a wildfire," he said.
We stood silent. I felt disproportionately terrible, like I had just been caught fleeing the scene of a murder.
Would he call my parents?
"I'll see you in Jury tomorrow at five," he announced, and then walked away. Alaska crouched down, picked up the cigarette she had thrown away, and started smoking again. The Eagle wheeled around, his sixth sense detecting Insubordination To Authority Figures. Alaska dropped the cigarette and stepped on it. The Eagle shook his head, and even though he must have been crazy mad, I swear to God he smiled.
"He loves me," Alaska told me as we walked back to the dorm circle. "He loves all y'all, too. He just loves the school more. That's the thing. He thinks busting us is good for the school and good for us. It's the eternal struggle, Pudge. The Good versus the Naughty."
"You're awfully philosophical for a girl that just got busted," I told her.
"Sometimes you lose a battle. But mischief always wins the war.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
I would believe; you would believe; he or she would believe.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
I spent the summer cloaked in shame, seething with jealousy. I envied other women's bodies. i envied fat women who draped their luscious curves without any embarrassment, thighs quaking as they walked. I envied thin women lounging effortlessly in T-shirts and shorts, nothing pinching or pudging, just smooth skin over smooth muscle over delicate bones. I envied anyone who didn't hate their body. People who ate without hesitation or pre-emptive shame at how all those calories would stretch over their flesh. It was about beauty, yes, but it was also just about belonging. People treat you with kindness and an invitation to belong if they like the way you look.
”
”
Francesca Ekwuyasi (Butter Honey Pig Bread)
“
When she fucked up, all those years ago, just a little girl terrified. into paralysis, she collapsed into the enigma of herself. And I could have done that, but I saw where it led for her. So I still believe in the Great Perhaps, and I can believe in it spite of having lost her.
Beacause I will forget her, yes. That which came together will fall apart imperceptibly slowly, and I will forget, but she will forgive my forgetting, just as I forgive her for forgetting me and the Colonel and everyone but herself and her mom in those last moments she spent as a person. I know that she forgives me for being dumb and sacred and doing the dumb and scared thing. I know she forgives me, just as her mother forgives her.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Here's a tip: you're cute when you're confident. And less when you're not.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
I just heard, "UP! Do you know what time it is?!"
I looked at the clock and groggily muttered,
"It's seven thirty-six."
"No, Pudge. It's party time!
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
So why don't you go home for vacations?” I asked her.
“I'm just scared of ghosts, Pudge. And home is full of them.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Pudge. I promise you. They will regret messing with one of my friends.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Don’t you know who you love, Pudge? You love the girl who makes you laugh and shows you porn and drinks wine with you. You don’t love the crazy, sullen bitch.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
The absense of a soul, by the way, makes it easy to inhabit a body. (Therefore, why is Elton John still pudging around unpossessed? I hear you ask?)
”
”
Glen Duncan (I, Lucifer)
“
You’ll spend Thanksgiving with me, silly. Here.”
“So why don’t you go home for vacations?” I asked her.
“I’m just scared of ghosts, Pudge. And home is full of them.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Maybe you shouldn’t drink so much,” I suggested. “Pudge.” She shook her head and sipped the cold coffee and wine. “Pudge, what you must understand about me is that I am a deeply unhappy person.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Maybe you shouldn't drink so much," I suggested. "Pudge." She shook her head and sipped the cold coffee and wine. "Pudge, what you must understand about me is that I am a deeply unhappy person.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
I thought at first she was just dead. Just darkness. Just a body being eaten by bugs. I thought about her a lot like that, as something's meal. What was her-green eyes, half a smirk, the soft curves of her legs-would soon be nothing, just the bones I never saw. I thought about the slow process of becoming bone and then fossil and then coal that will, in millions of years, be mined by humans of the future, and how they would their homes with her, and then she would be smoke billowing out of a smokestack, coating the atmosphere.
I still think that, sometimes. I still think that, sometimes, think that maybe "the afterlife" is just something we made up to ease the pain of loss, to make our time in the labyrinth bearable. Maybe she was just a matter, and matter gets recycled.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Tell me this,” Pudge would often ask me, as he sat and read about the exorbitant funeral of a rival. “If he was the guy with all the power, then how come he’s riding in the lead car, stuffed inside a coffin?
”
”
Lorenzo Carcaterra (Gangster: A Novel)
“
And if Alaska took her own life, that is the hope I wish I could have given her. Forgetting her mother, failing her mother and her friends and herself -those are awful things, but she did not need to fold into herself and self-destruct. Those awful things are survivable because we are as indestructible as we believe ourselves to be. When adults say "Teenagers think they are invincible" with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
I remember always being baffled by other children. I would be at a birthday party and watch the other kids giggling and making faces, and I would try to do that too, but I wouldn’t understand why. I would sit there with the tight elastic thread of the birthday hat parting the pudge of my underchin, with the grainy frosting of the cake bluing my teeth, and I would try to figure out why it was fun. With Nick, I understood finally. Because he was so much fun. It was like dating a sea otter.
”
”
Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)
“
She isn’t just bloated. Buttery discolored skin has begun to puddle around her joints, not yet settling in. Even her feet have a layer of pudge on the top, each toe inflated, ending with a jagged broken-off nail. She focuses on me with bleary eyes. “You have to stop.
”
”
Ling Ling Huang (Natural Beauty)
“
Will: Do you ever wonder what your life would be like if you never met your wife?
Sean: What? Do I wonder if I'd be better off if I never met my wife? No, that's okay. It's an important question. 'Cause you'll have your bad times, which wake you up to the good stuff you weren't paying attention to. And you can fail, as long as you're trying hard. But there's nothing worse than regret.
Will: You don't regret meetin' your wife?
Sean: Why? Because of the pain I feel now? I have regrets Will, but I don't regret a single day I spent with her.
Will: When did you know she was the one?
Sean: October 21, 1975. Game six of the World Series. Biggest game in Red Sox history. Me and my friends slept out on the sidewalk all night to get tickets. We were sitting in a bar waiting for the game to start and in walks this girl. What a game that was. Tie game in the bottom of the tenth inning, in steps Carlton Fisk, hit a long fly ball down the left field line. Thirty-five thousand fans on their feet, screamin' at the ball to stay fair. Fisk is runnin' up the baseline, wavin' at the ball like a madman. It hits the foul pole, home run. Thirty-five thousand people went crazy. And I wasn't one of them.
Will: Where were you?
Sean: I was havin' a drink with my future wife.
Will: You missed Pudge Fisk's home run to have a drink with a woman you had never met?
Sean: That's right.
Will: So wait a minute. The Red Sox haven't won a World Series since nineteen eighteen, you slept out for tickets, games gonna start in twenty minutes, in walks a girl you never seen before, and you give your ticket away?
Sean: You should have seen this girl. She lit up the room.
Will: I don't care if Helen of Troy walked into that bar! That's game six of the World Series! And what kind of friends are these? They let you get away with that?
Sean: I just slid my ticket across the table and said "sorry fellas, I gotta go see about a girl."
Will: "I gotta go see about a girl"? What did they say?
Sean: They could see that I meant it.
Will: You're kiddin' me.
Sean: No Will, I'm not kiddin' you. If I had gone to see that game I'd be in here talkin' about a girl I saw at a bar twenty years ago. And how I always regretted not goin' over there and talkin' to her. I don't regret the eighteen years we were married. I don't regret givin' up counseling for six years when she got sick. I don't regret being by her side for the last two years when things got real bad. And I sure as Hell don't regret missing that damn game.
Will: Would have been nice to catch that game though.
Sean: Well hell, I didn't know Pudge was gonna hit the home run.
”
”
Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting)
“
It’s not life or death, the labyrinth.” “Um, okay. So what is it?” “Suffering,” she said. “Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you. That’s the problem. Bolívar was talking about the pain, not about the living or dying. How do you get out of the labyrinth of suffering?” “What’s wrong?” I asked. And I felt the absence of her hand on me. “Nothing’s wrong. But there’s always suffering, Pudge. Homework or malaria or having a boyfriend who lives far away when there’s a good-looking boy lying next to you. Suffering is universal. It’s the one thing Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims are all worried about.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
It's not life or death, the labyrinth.”
“Urn, okay. So what is it?”
“Suffering,” she said. “Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you. That's the problem. Bolivar was talking about the pain, not about the living or dying. How do you get out of the labyrinth of suffering?”
“What's wrong?” I asked. And I felt the absence of her hand on me.
“Nothing's wrong. But there's always suffering, Pudge. Homework or malaria or having a boyfriend who lives far away when there's a good-looking boy lying next to you. Suffering is universal. It's the one thing Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims are all worried about.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
You don’t even care about her!” he shouted. “All that matters is you and your precious fucking fantasy that you and Alaska had this goddamned secret love affair and she was going to leave Jake for you and you’d live happily ever after. But she kissed a lot of guys, Pudge. And if she were here, we both know that she would still be Jake’s girlfriend and that there’d be nothing but drama between the two of you—not love, not sex, just you pining after her and her like, ‘You’re cute, Pudge, but I love Jake.’ If she loved you so much, why did she leave you that night? And if you loved her so much, why’d you help her go? I was drunk. What’s your excuse?
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
I came back into the room and excitedly said, “They love their hair.” “Precisely!” she shouted. “Look on the top bunk.” Perilously positioned on the thin wooden headboard of the bed, a bottle of STA-WET gel. “Kevin doesn’t just wake up with that spiky bedhead look, Pudge. He works for it. He loves that hair. They leave their hair products here, Pudge, because they have duplicates at home. All those boys do. And you know why?” “Because they’re compensating for their tiny little penises?” I asked. “Ha ha. No. That’s why they’re macho assholes. They love their hair because they aren’t smart enough to love something more interesting. So we hit them where it hurts: the scalp.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Q:Alaska wasn't introduced as fully as the other characters even though the book largely centres around the effect she had on people (like the Colonel). Is that intentional?
A: The first time Pudge and Alaska have a real conversation , she's sitting next to him in the dark and he can't really see her. And throughout the story, there are times when he's looking at her without seeing her, or there's something between them that prevents him from seeing her whole face, or he only sees the back of her head, etc., etc., etc.
That was all meant to indicate how incompletly he sees Alaska, something she mentions to him again and again. But in all his fascination with her, he can't help but romanticise her, which makes it difficult for him to understand the reality and seriousness of her pain.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
“
Her hand just above my knee, the palm flat and soft against my jeans and her index finger making slow, lazy circles that crept toward the inside of my thigh, and with one layer between us, God I wanted her. And lying there, amid the tall, still grass and beneath the star-drunk sky, listening to the just-this-side-of-inaudible sound of her rhythmic breathing and the noisy silence of the bullfrogs, the grasshoppers, the distant cars rushing endlessly on I-65, I thought it might be a fine time to say the Three Little Words. And I steeled myself to say them as I stared up at that starriest night, convinced myself that she felt it, too, that her hand so alive and vivid against my leg was more than playful, and fuck Lara and fuck Jake because I do, Alaska Young, I do love you and what else matters but that and my lips parted to speak and before I could even begin to breathe out the words, she said, “It’s not life or death, the labyrinth.”
“Um, okay. So what is it?”
“Suffering,” she said. “Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you. That’s the problem. Bolívar was talking about the pain, not about the living or dying. How do you get out of the labyrinth of suffering?”
“What’s wrong?” I asked. And I felt the absence of her hand on me.
“Nothing’s wrong. But there’s always suffering, Pudge. Homework or malaria or having a boyfriend who lives far away when there’s a good-looking boy lying next to you. Suffering is universal. It’s the one thing Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims are all worried about.”
I turned to her. “Oh, so maybe Dr. Hyde’s class isn’t total bullshit.” And both of us lying on our sides, she smiled, our noses almost touching, my unblinking eyes on hers, her face blushing from the wine, and I opened my mouth again but this time not to speak, and she reached up and put a finger to my lips and said, “Shh. Shh. Don’t ruin it.
”
”
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
“
The Pudgelys and the Pinkhearts and the Roundasses are all staring at her, slackjawed. She has just enough residual energy to swing into their driveway. Her momentum carries her to the top. She stops next to Mr. Pudgely’s Acura and Mrs. Pudgely’s bimbo box and steps off her plank. The spokes, noting her departure, even themselves out, plant themselves on the top of the driveway, refuse to roll backward. A
”
”
Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash)
“
Hey there, Scourge,” he said to me. He had the kind of face that didn’t give away his age, skin smooth but not layered with the pudge of youth, dark eyes glittering with mischief.
I didn’t like him.
“No,” I said to Teka. “I’m not working with this idiot.”
“My name is pronounced ‘Ettrek,’” he said, grinning.
“Listen, it’s not like you have a deep pool of applicants, here,” Teka said to me.
”
”
Veronica Roth (The Fates Divide (Carve the Mark, #2))
“
Actually, add TV, movies, and books to that. There are hardly any plus-sized leading ladies. Do you realize there's not even one Disney heroine who's fat? The closest you get is that little Lilo chick, who's like six, and her story isn't even a romance. Stitch is a blue alien who's a friendly pet. I mean, are they trying to say girls who have a little pudge aren't worthy of love? Because that's what it feels like.
”
”
Cookie O'Gorman (Cupcake)
“
I lift the edge of her shirt so I can settle my hands on her naked waist, but she pushes my hands away. “What’s wrong?” “I can’t get used to all the touching you do. It’s strange. And makes me feel vulnerable, because my body is far from perfect.” It took a lot for her to say that, I can tell. She’s worried about me touching a pudgy spot? Seriously? I live for pudge. Bring it on. “You want me to keep my hands to myself?” She shakes her head. “No.” I kiss the tip of her nose. She scrunches up her face, and then brackets my face with her hands, looks into my eyes, and kisses me.
”
”
Tammy Falkner (Zip, Zero, Zilch (The Reed Brothers, #6))
“
Breathing towards a more peaceful day" Pudge xo
”
”
Kimberly A. Rainville (Pudge Learns to Meditate: A Guide for Getting Young Minds Mindful, Happy and at Peace)
“
revealing a layer of pudge around her middle.
”
”
Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
“
land on it. I’ll give it to him: he’s super-cute. All blond curls and pudge, with a couple of tiny white bottom teeth and peaches in his cheeks. For one so tiny, he’s
”
”
Josie Silver (One Day in December)
“
Jacques sipped and swayed peacefully within the wine’s thrall. “Who were you, again?” “Valor.” “Seriously?” “You would not be the first to find humor in our traditions.” “Could be worse.” Another swallow. Lovely stuff, star wine. “Stodgy or Manky or Pudge.” “More?” Jacques nodded happily. “Very generous.” Valor winked. “Generous is my aunt.
”
”
Forthright . (Lord Mettlebright's Man (Amaranthine Interludes))