Top 100 S. E. Hinton Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I was desperate for something to read that dealt realistically with teenage life, and I thought others might be, too.”

— S. E. Hinton

52. “Writer’s were supposed to be a litte crazy.”

— S. E. Hinton

53. “Johnny almost grinned as he nodded. “Tuff enough,” he managed, and by the way his eyes were glowing, I figured Southern gentlemen had nothing on Johnny Cade.”

— S. E. Hinton

54. “Nothing sparkly can stay.”

— S. E. Hinton

55. “I had to read Great Expectations for English, and that kid Pip, he reminded me of us – the way he felt marked lousy because he wasn’t a gentleman or anything, and the way that girl kept looking down on him.”

— S. E. Hinton

56. “That’s why we’re separated,” I said. “It’s not money, it’s feeling – you don’t feel anything and we feel too violently.”

— S. E. Hinton

57. “In our neighborhood it’s rare to find a kid who doesn’t drink once in a while. But Soda never touches a drop – he doesn’t need to. He gets drunk on just plain living.”

— S. E. Hinton

58. “It ain’t fair that we have all the rough breaks!”

— S. E. Hinton

59. “A guy that’ll really listen to you, listen and care about what you’re saying, is something rare.”

— S. E. Hinton

60. “He sure put things into words good.”

— S. E. Hinton

61. “There isn’t any real good reason for fighting except self-defense.”

— S. E. Hinton

62. “You greasers have a different set of values. You’re more emotional. We’re sophisticated-cool to the point of not feeling anything. Nothing is real with us.”

— S. E. Hinton

63. “He meant you are gold when you’re a kid, like green. When you’re a kid everything is new, dawn. It’s just. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That’s gold.”

— S. E. Hinton

64. “It would be a miracle if Dally loved anything. The fight for self-preservation had hardened him beyond caring.”

— S. E. Hinton

65. “I don’t know why I go to school unless for kicks, oh well might as well do dissect a frog.”

— S. E. Hinton

66. “What’s a nice, smart kid like you running around with trash like that for?”

— S. E. Hinton

67. “I’m not saying that either Socs or greasers are better; that’s just the way things are.”

— S. E. Hinton

68. “You oughta see Kathy’s brother. Now there’s a hood. He’s so greasy he glides when he walks. He goes to the barber for an oil change, not a haircut.”

— S. E. Hinton

69. “There was a silent moment when everything held its breath, and then the sun rose.”

— S. E. Hinton

70. “Two-Bit was the only one wearing a jacket; he had a couple of cans of beer stuffed in it. He always gets high before a rumble. Before anything else, too, come to think of it. I shook my head. I’d hate to see the day when I had to get my nerve from a can.”

— S. E. Hinton

71. “Some of us never cry at al. Like Dally and Two-Bit and Tim Shepard – they forgot how at an early age.”

— S. E. Hinton

72. “She kind of shrugged. “I could just tell. I’ll bet you watch sunsets, too.” She was quiet for a minute after I nodded. “I used to watch them, too, before I got so busy.”

— S. E. Hinton

73. “Asleep, he looked a lot younger than going-on-seventeen, but I had noticed that Johnny looked younger when he was asleep too, so I figured everyone did. Maybe people are younger when they are asleep.”

— S. E. Hinton

74. “We had played a kid’s version of gang fighting called “Civil War,” and then later we had got in on the real thing, we fought with chains and we fought barefisted and we fought Socs and we fought other grease gangs. It was a normal childhood.”

— S. E. Hinton

75. “Somos todo lo que nos queda. Tenemos que ser capaces de seguir unidos, pase lo que pase. Si no nos tenemos los unos a los otros, no tenemos nada.”

— S. E. Hinton

76. “When you’re a kid, everything’s new, dawn. It’s just when you get used to everything that it’s day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That’s gold. Keep that way, it’s a good way to be.”

— S. E. Hinton

77. “You can’t say, ‘This is just a stage’ when its important to people what they’re feeling. Maybe he’ll outgrow it someday but right now it’s important.”

— S. E. Hinton

78. “That’s why people don’t ever think to blame the Socs and are always ready to jump on us. We look hoody and they look decent. It could be just the other way around – half of the hoods I know are pretty decent guys underneath all that grease, and from what I’ve heard, a lot of Socs are just cold-blooded mean – but people usually go by looks.”

— S. E. Hinton

79. “I can lie so easily that it spooks me sometimes – Soda says it comes form reading so much. But then, Two-Bit lias all the time too, and he never opens a book.”

— S. E. Hinton

80. “I could never understand people being scared of things they didn’t know nothing about.”

— S. E. Hinton

81. “The shade of difference that separates a greaser from a hood wasn’t present in Dally.”

— S. E. Hinton

82. “Don’t you know a rumble ain’t a rumble unless I’m in it?”

— S. E. Hinton

83. “The major influence on my writing has been my reading. When I was young, I read everything, including cereal boxes and coffee labels. Reading taught me sentence structure, paragraphing, how to build a chapter. Strangely enough, it never taught me spelling.”

— S. E. Hinton

84. “I gotta cut smoking or I’ll never make track next year.”

— S. E. Hinton

85. “He had strange eyes-they make me think of a two-way mirror. Like you could feel somebody on the other side watching you, but the only reflections you saw was your own.”

— S. E. Hinton

86. “Maybe people are younger when they sleep.”

— S. E. Hinton

87. “Okay greasers, you’ve had it.”

— S. E. Hinton

88. “I didn’t think much about that statement then. But later I would-I still do. I think about it and think about it until I think I’m going crazy.”

— S. E. Hinton

89. “That was the first time I realized the extent of Johnny’s hero-worship for Dally Winston. Of all of us, Dally was the one I liked least. He didn’t have Soda’s understanding or dash, or Two-Bit’s humor, or even Darry’s superman qualities. But I realized that these three appealed to me because they were like the heroes in the novels I read. Dally was real. I liked my books and clouds and sunsets. Dally was so real he scared me.”

— S. E. Hinton

90. “My boyfriend suggested I write two pages a day. He wouldn’t take me out if I hadn’t done my two pages. That’s how I wrote my second novel.”

— S. E. Hinton

91. “We needed Johnny as much as he needed the gang. And for the same reason.”

— S. E. Hinton

92. “We saw the same sunset.”

— S. E. Hinton

93. “Sometimes, I feel like I spent the first part of my life wishing to be a teen-age boy, and the second part condemned to being one.”

— S. E. Hinton

94. “Oh, glory,” I said with a groan, “this is all I need to top off a perfect night” I took one last drag on my weed and ground the stub under my heel.”

— S. E. Hinton

95. “I’m what you might call a Pepsi addict.”

— S. E. Hinton

96. “He can get drunk in a drag race or dancing without ever getting near alcohol. In our neighborhood it’s rare to find a kid who doesn’t drink once in a while. But Soda never touches a drop – he doesn’t need to. He gets drunk on just plain living. And he understands everybody.”

— S. E. Hinton

97. “I like having a private name and a public name. It helps keep things straight.”

— S. E. Hinton

98. “Darry took a step toward me, but I backed away. “Don’t touch me,” I said. My heart was pounding in slow thumps, throbbing at the side of my head, and I wondered if everyone else could hear it. Maybe that’s why they’re all looking at me, I thought, they can hear my heart beating...”

— S. E. Hinton

99. “I’m a good judge of my own work.”

— S. E. Hinton

100. “All of a sudden it felt like people were peering over my shoulder, wondering what I would write next. I was blocked for four years.”

— S. E. Hinton