I guess I just couldn't see standing there -- alive, talking, thinking, breathing, being -- one second, and dead the next. It really bothered me. Dea….

You know a guy a longtime, and I mean really know him, you don't get used to the idea that he's dead just overnight..

I made up my mind that I'd get out of that place and I didI learned that if you want to get somewhere, you just make up your mind and work like hell ….

I learned that if you want to get somewhere, you just make up your mind and work like hell til you get there..

You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you're a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don't stick up for them, stick togethe….

I think that The Outsiders was meant to be written, and I was just picked to write it..

We couldn't get along without him. We needed Johnny as much as he needed the gang. And for the same reason..

I was desperate for something to read that dealt realistically with teenage life, and I thought others might be, too..

...but I've never regretted it. You can't regret experience..

the person in this picture is really me..

If you enjoy reading something, read it..

I advise writing to oneself. If you don't want to read it, nobody else is going to read it..

I'm a good judge of my own work..

They grew up on the outside of society. They weren't looking for a fight. They were looking to belong..

What's the safest thing to be when one is met by a gang of social outcasts in an alley? ...No, another social outcast!.

Your mother is not crazy. Neither, contrary to popular belief, is your brother. He is merely miscast in a play. He would have made the perfect knight….

You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want. There's still lots of good in the world. Tell Dally. I don't think he knows..

You know what the crummiest feeling you can have is? To hate the person you love the best in the world..

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..

I had it then. Soda fought for fun, Steve for hatred, Darry for pride, and Two-Bit for conformity. Why do I fight? I thought, and couldn't think of a….

Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset..