Clay Jensen – Character Quotes

— I love you, Hannah.
— Why didn't you say this to me when I was alive?

I've been exhausted since ninth grade.

— Oh, wait, everyone. It's Justin Foley and Zach Dempsey, star basketball players here at Liberty High. Hey, Justin, where's my bike? Justin stole my bike.
— What the fuck? What are you doing?
— I'm giving our new foreign exchange students a tour. Figured they should know who owns the school, right, you guys?
— Clay.
— Right, right. Moving on. Where were we? Right. The auditorium. Oh, oh, but before we go... I want to show you something super cool. Okay?
— Clay, cut it out.
— Look at these lockers. They all look alike, right? Not this one. This one is special. It belonged to a girl who killed herself.
— Clay, come on!
— You see all these "don't kill yourself" posters up on the wall? They weren't up before. They put them up because she killed herself. And why did she do it? Because the kids her treated her like shit!
— Jensen, that's enough.
— But no one wants to admit it, so they paint over the bathrooms and put up the memorial, because that's the kind of school that this is! Everyone is just so nice until they drive you to kill yourself! And sooner or later the truth will come out! It's gonna come out.

I cost a girl her life because I was afraid to love her.

Going back to school... after a two-week suspension... was like... like coming back from war.

I think you've been keeping secrets from everyone, from me, and most damaging, from yourself.

Love has made me angry, paranoid, afraid. Love has made me a monster, more than once.

— Oh, you... you find your drink?
— Yeah, it's a Z-Man rocks.
— A Z-Man rocks?
— Yeah.
— What's in it?
— Everything the Z-Man could get his hands on. On the rocks.

— I found this. Your college essay. The one that got you in. I didn'n read it. It's personal.
— Dude, I mean, we have literally breathed each other's farts. You've walked in on me jerking off more times than you even know, and now you draw the line?

— I think I'm losing my shit.
— Shit's overrated. Lose it.

It comes down to one question. Will you survive high school? Will I survive? Because I know too many people who didn't. In the past two years, three people who I loved have died. And two...two other people...who I thought I hated, also died. But I learned that hate is too simple. Jessica's right. Hate is easy. Love and understanding are harder. But they are how we take care of each other, how we survive. My dad loves to tell me stories about when he was in high school. The stories usually involve chess club and obscure bands with funny haircuts, because the '80s were a strange, strange time. But he always gets one thing right. He knows high school can hurt. That it can be painful. That there are days when that's all it is. And he once told me that he's living proof...you can survive. You can get through it. He's living proof, and so am I. And so are all of you. And the thing is, for me, for us, this class, this...generation, high school actually is life or death. We show up every day not knowing if this is the day we die. If this is the day someone shows up with a gun and tries to kill us all. We practice what we'll do if that happens. Life or death. I suffer from anxiety...and, uh, depression. But mostly anxiety. I sometimes think all of us kids do, in some way. And how could we not, with the world the way it is? We hear a lot of promises that things will get better. And...and, look, maybe they will, maybe they won't. And what I think I've learned, what I wanna say to you...is whatever happens, keep moving. Get through it. Choose to live. 'Cause even on the worst day, there are people who love you. There's new music waiting for you to hear, some...something you haven't seen before that will blow your mind in the best way. Even on the worst day, life is a pretty spectacular thing.

— Can you ever forgive me?
— I'm not who needs to forgive you.