S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" Quotes Archives - Famous Inspirational Quotes & Sayings

There isn't any real good reason for fighting except self-defense.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

They grew up on the outside of society. They weren't looking for a fight. They were looking to belong.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

They shouldn't hate each other . . . I don't hate the Socs any more . . . they shouldn't hate . . .
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

Asleep, he looked a lo younger than going-on-seventeen, but I had noticed that Johnny looked younger when he was asleep too, so I figured everyone did. Maybe people are younger when they are asleep.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

They used to be buddies, I thought, they used to be friends, and now they hate each other because one has to work for a living and the other comes from the West Side. They shouldn't hate each other...
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

Can you see the sunset real good on the West side? You can see it on the East side too.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

Dally was so real he scared me.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

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

Get smart and nothing can touch you.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

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 together, make like brothers, it isn't a gang anymore. It's a pack. A snarling, distrustful, bickering park like the Socs in their social clubs or the street gangs in New York or the wolves in the timber.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

I am a greaser. I am a JD and a hood. I blacken the name of our fair city. I beat up people. I rob gas stations. I am a menace to society. Man do I have fun!
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

I don't know why I go to school unless for kicks, oh well might as well do dissect a frog.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

I lie to myself all the time, but I never believe me.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

It seemed funny that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

It's okay. We aren't in the same class. Just don't forget that some of us watch the sunset too.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

I've been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy that wrote it, he meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep that way, it's a good way to be.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

Sixteen years on the streets and you can learn a lot. But all the wrong things, not the things you want to learn. Sixteen years on the streets and you see a lot. But all the wrong sights, not the things you want to see.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"

That's why people don't ever think to blame the Socs and are always ready to jump on us. We look hoody and they look decent. It could be just the other way around - half of the hoods I know are pretty decent guys underneath all that grease, and from what I've heard, a lot of Socs are just cold-blooded mean - but people usually go by looks.
—S.E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"