Top 80 Wendelin Van Draanen Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “You never forget your first love.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

2. “Sometimes a little discomfort in the beginning can save a whole lot of pain down the road.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

3. “A painting is more than the sum of its parts,? he would tell me, and then go on to explain how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you’ve got magic.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

4. “Sometimes the things we really want are right in front of us. We just don’t see them.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

5. “It’s funny how you can think you know someone pretty well, and then something happens or they do something that makes you understand that you didn’t really know them at all.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

6. “A painting is more than the sum of its parts.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

7. “I am a runner. That’s what I do. That’s who I am. Running is all I know, or want, or care about.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

8. “If chaos is a necessary step in the organization of one’s universe, then I was well on my way.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

9. “I had Flipped. -Bryce Loski.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

10. “Don’t sum up a person based on what you see, or what you don’t understand; get to know them.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

11. “I miss school. What’s wrong with me?”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

12. “Somehow the silence seemed to connect us in a way like words never could.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

13. “It’s easy to look back and see it, and it’s easy to give the advice. But the sad fact is, most people don’t look beneath the surface until it’s too late.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

14. “There’s nothing like a headstrong woman to make you happy to be alive.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

15. “Now, I know from experience that the trouble with one lie is that it usually takes more lies to cover it up. And if you don’t watch out, you wind up telling lies to cover up the lies that are covering up the original lie.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

16. “Blue Face Disgusting taste Flush it Shush it Cold disgrace.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

17. “Every once in a while you find someone who is iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

Featured in: Romance Quotes

18. “I had liked him for all the wrong reasons.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

Featured in: Romance Quotes

19. “I wipe away my tears and nod, because the pain in my leg is nothing compare to the one in my heart.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

20. “Get beyond his eyes and his smile and the sheen of his hair – Look at what’s really there.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

21. “One’s character is set at an early age. The choices you make now will affect you for the rest of your life. I hate to see you swim out so far you can’t swim back.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

22. “He tells us that life isn’t about what happens to you, it’s about what you do about what happens to you.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

23. “If the mind’s not strong, the body acts weak, even if it’s not. If the mind says it’s too cold or too rainy or too windy to run, the body will be more than happy to agree. If the mind says it would be better to rest or recover or cut practice, the body will be glad to oblige.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

24. “I’d scale that monster sycamore if I could. Right to the top. And I’d yell her name across the rooftops for the whole world to hear. -Bryce.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

25. “You told us over and over that you don’t think you could live without books, but the ironic thing is, you’d probably die before you’d think to rip pages out of one to start a fire. Am I right? Well, get over it already. Better to be warm then well-read.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

26. “I write early in the morning at the computer, and people think Im crazy, but I still use my Mac-Classic even though we have a state-of-the-art PC. There are just less distractions with the simpler machine.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

27. “The first day I met Bryce Loski, I flipped. Honestly, one look at him and I became a lunatic. It’s his eyes. Something in his eyes. They’re blue, and framed in the blackness of his lashes, they’re dazzling. Absolutely breathtaking.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

28. “Proper lighting is everything, Julianna.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

29. “I hate t see you swim out so far you can’t swim back.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

30. “One by one by one by one. That’s how I got through losing a leg. Minute by minute by minute by minute. Hour by hour by hour by hour. Day by day by day by day. That’s how anybody makes it through anything.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

31. “The finish line comes into view and you will yourself toward it, but the wind pushes you back, and your body begs you to give up, and the whole world seems to grind into slow motion. Your determination is all that’s left. It forces your muscles to fire. Forces you to stay in the race. Forces you to survive the pain of this moment.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

32. “But in my heart I knew that just like the new grass, I wasn’t strong enough yet to be walked on.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

33. “Sometimes I get so caught up in my own problems that I forget how amazing the world is.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

34. “It’s disturbing how fast weeds take root in my garden of worthiness. They’re so hard to pull. And grow back so easily.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

35. “Repetition. Effort. Pain. Success. There really is no shortcut.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

36. “But in my heart I knew the old Bryce was toast. There was no going back. Not to Garrett or Shelly or Miranda or any of the other people who wouldn’t understand. Juli was different, but after all these years that didn’t bother me anymore. I liked it. I liked her.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

37. “There’s no winning arguments with your parents.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

38. “I’ve flown kites before and I know – sometimes they’re gone forever, and sometimes they’re just waiting in the middle of the road for you to rescue them. Kites can be lucky or they can be ornery. I’ve had both kinds, and a lucky kite is definitely worth chasing for.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

39. “What he did to my heart was sheer, inexplicable, magic.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

Featured in: Romance Quotes

40. “That’s the funny thing about running. The deceptive thing about it. It may seem mindless, but its really mental. If the minds strong, the body acts weak, even if its not.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

41. “Today I’ve been considering how life’s journey is not about the distance we move our feet, but how we are moved in our heart.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

42. “There’s no winning arguments with your parents, so why get all pumped up over them? It is way better to dive down and get out of the way than it is to get clobbered by some parental tidal wave.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

43. “Turn down a chance to feel magic for fear of a little dirt?”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

44. “It was beyond embarrassing or humiliating or even mortifying. It was ego-slaying!”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

45. “As much as thinking this upsets me, I’m starting to see that I need the merry-go-round much more than it needs me, and in the end my choice is to hop back on or get left in the dust.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

46. “Julie always tried to stand beside me, or talk to me, or in some other way mortify me.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

47. “I’ve decided this is all your fault, Ms. Leone. I’ve run away before, you know, but stowed away or jumped trains or broke into buildings, I just ran away and got caught. But I think all that stuff you told us about the Underground Railroad got lodged in my subconscious, and somewhere inside it gave me the strength or courage or insanity to really get away. So see? This is all your fault.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

48. “Surely, I thought, a few bushes and some dilapidated wood couldn’t stop someone’s best and brightest blessing! Surely not!”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

49. “A million dollars sounds like a lot, I know. Especially when you’re young. But you can’t let money erode your principles or you’ll wind up with nothing.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen

50. “It’s to have people see her instead of her condition. That’s all that anybody with a disability wants. Don’t sum up the person based on what you see, or what you don’t understand; get to know them.”

— Wendelin Van Draanen