How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
He's going to work in that factory his whole life, and he's going to have the same friends, and he's really happy with that, and he thinks it matters. (14.54)
What makes you happy? For TOC, it's the same old, same old—he's happy to live in a small town and work in the same place for his whole life. For Colin, he wants to matter; and for Lindsey, she's not quite sure. The truth is, it takes different things to make people happy, and even then these things can change.
Quote #8
"I only registered for two classes in the fall, so don't start creaming yourself. I've got to ease my way into it. Don't tell me how fugging happy you are. I know. (17.71)
Colin has been waiting for Hassan to register for college since we first met the guy, so when it finally happens, we know Colin's over the moon, but Hassan doesn't want to hear it. Why? We're betting Hassan wants to experience it for himself, and that he doesn't want Colin's emotions dictating his life.
Quote #9
"That's how I remember things, anyway. I remember stories. I connect the dots and then out of that comes a story. And the dots that don't fit into the story just slide away, maybe. Like when you spot a constellation. You look up and you don't see all the stars. All the stars just look like the big fugging random mess that they are. But you want to see shapes; you want to see stories, so you pick them out of the sky. Hassan told me once you think like that, too—that you see connections everywhere—so you're a natural born storyteller, it turns out." (19.91)
This is how Lindsey gets happy: she makes connections and tells stories to people. We like the way she connects it to what's going on with Colin—they're in the same boat, really, they just steer it to different places. Lindsey feels happiness in the hidden links between things in life, while Colin tries to find those links in books and langauges.