Frasi di Gary Paulsen

“Le ferite di guerra che abbiano come conseguenza la perdita di arti vengono definite ufficialmente "amputazioni traumatiche". Tim aveva subito l'amputazione traumatica della gamba sinistra, all'altezza del ginocchio; della gamba destra, all'altezza del polpaccio; del braccio sinistro, all'altezza del gomito; e del braccio destro, all'altezza del bicipite. Presentava anche lacerazioni diffuse e profonde su quasi tutto il torso, che gli lasciarono un reticolo di cicatrici; aveva patito inoltre la perdita parziale della funzionalità dell'occhio sinistro. In corpo, ha tuttora un "sacco di ferraglia". Sì, oggi dice proprio così.
– Ho ancora un sacco di ferraglia in corpo. Troppa. Se passassi attraverso il metal-detector in un aeroporto, farei suonare tutti gli allarmi.
Probabilmente non è vero, ma questo non ha molta importanza, visto che di rado Tim va da qualche parte, e comunque mai in aereo. Vive in un ospizio per disabili, in una piccola stanza con le pareti tappezzate di manifesti degli Anni Settanta e di fotografie di Lennon e Harrison, e ascolta i Beatles e i Jefferson Airplane: solo gli Airplane perché dice lui, da quando sono diventati Jefferson Starship hanno fatto solo robaccia.”

“If books could have more, give more, be more, show more, they would still need readers who bring to them sound and smell and light and all the rest that can’t be in books.
The book needs you.”

“I read like a wolf eats.
I read myself to sleep every night.”

“I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books.”

“I tried to contain myself… but I escaped!”

“I spent uncounted hours sitting at the bow looking at the water and the sky, studying each wave, different from the last, seeing how it caught the light, the air, the wind; watching patterns, the sweep of it all, and letting it take me.
The sea.”

“Read like a wolf eats.”

“Books make me feel safe. Books make me feel normal.”

“And the last thought he had that morning as he closed his eyes was: I hope the tornado hit the moose.”

“… this beginning motion, this first time when a sail truly filled and the boat took life and knifed across the lake under perfect control, this was so beautiful it stopped my breath…”

“That's all it took to solve problems - just sense.”

“When he sat alone in the darkness and cried and was done, all done with it, nothing had changed. His leg still hurt, it was still dark, he was still alone and the self-pity had accomplished nothing.”

“He could not play the game without hope; could not play the game without a dream. They had taken it all away from him now, they had turned away from him and there was nothing for him now… He was alone and there was nothing for him.”

“He had to keep thinking of them because if he forgot them and did not think of them they might forget about him. And he had to keep hoping.”

“Things seemed to go back and forth between reality and imagination--except that it was all reality.”