Addie's Quotebook

I've written things in the dark - more than once I have frantically sifted through my purse in a dark theater, hoping that the specific line won't slip through my fingers until I located my quotebook and pen. When I finally pull out the pen from my purse and open my quotebook to a blank page, I would jot down the lines without even looking at the paper. As long as it was legible and documented, I was happy.

So I've had my quotebook for about five years now. I'm going through my sixth quotebook. I started the quotebook when it became unbearable for me to let inspirational words, sentences just disappear into thin air and be forgotten. The best dialogue from real life situations are original, juicy, tangible tid-bits that burst with energy. They cannot be duplicated.

The first quote I ever wrote down was one from a film that I didn't like very much. I was surprised the other day, when I came across it, because the quote was entirely in line with a desire I've had that I had never verbalized or even recognized.

Here are a list of the first quotes in each of the six quotebooks I've accumulated:

"Caught between two worlds but perfectly happy." - Nicole Kidman, starring in Bewitched

"I'm a 6-year-old with an 8-year-old brain." - Quinn DeVita, 1st-grade student

"We have built-in-gaydars; boobs."* - Andrea Moreno, a friend I met at a workshop in Iowa

"The psychologial background is different. Driven people are damaged people who are looking for answers." - Nadia Chou, my sister

"I'm always constipated. It's so uncomfortable. And I'm telling you this because I feel comfortable about our poop relation." - Sarah Jo, a good friend

"You have words in your head and you want to see how they look on paper." - Marilynne Robinson, on being a writer

I have to be honest. This past year, I've been extremely lazy. The quotebook is becoming a hodge-podge of other things. Instead, I have a manila envelope sitting on my desk full of post-its, napkins and tattered pieces of paper. I've jotted down quotes on these. I've sworn to myself a million times that one of these days I'll sit at a Starbucks and go through the envelope and "quotify" my quote book again. I haven't yet, but I will.

(*This quote was a result of a question I asked Andrea regarding a cute guy that worked at the ice-cream parlor.
Me: Do you think that guy from Whitey's is gay?
Andrea: (Decisively) No.
Me: How do you know for sure?
Andrea: Because girls have built in radars. I'll take off my glasses and show you what I mean by that.)