Why do we smile? Why do we laugh? Why do we feel alone? Why are we sad and confused? Why do we read poetry? Why do we cry when we see a painting? Why…

- Benjamin Alire Saenz

If you want to be a writer, you don't want to live in a comfortable place.

- Benjamin Alire Saenz

Mostly, I think people are fake. Well, what do you expect? The fake world we live in conspires to make us all fakes.

- Benjamin Alire Saenz

Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer could end in a downpour. Could end in l…

- Benjamin Alire Saenz

Summer was here again. Summer, summer, summer. I loved and hated summers. Summers had a logic all their own and they always brought something out in …

- Benjamin Alire Saenz

For a moment, I thought of the word happy and it was a word that just, well, it felt like it was visiting me. I knew it wouldn’t last for very long a…

- Benjamin Alire Saenz

I think writing books is a way for me to work out certain issues. I write about what matters to me, always.

- Benjamin Alire Saenz

I wondered if my smile was as big as hers. Maybe as big. But not as beautiful.

- Benjamin Alire Saenz

The summer sun was not meant for boys like me. Boys like me belonged to the rain.

- Benjamin Alire Saenz