All the recognizable cliques came by, and so did those groupable stragglers who were known by their little circles of two or three.

— Adi Alsaid

A native tongue, in my opinion, isn't the language spoken where you were born or the first language you learned; it's a language that makes you feel at home. It's a language that you don't command, but that commands you. And without it, you'd feel lost, unsure of how to express to the world everything you care enough to express.

— Adi Alsaid

As long as we don't get turned into something that looks more like high school, more like everybody else and less like us, I'll be okay.

— Adi Alsaid

Funny, how it took a little bit of pain to remember that certain parts of yourself were alive.

— Adi Alsaid

How do text messages make you feel existential? I start thinking about exactly that: how people can edit a thought before sending it out to the world. They can make themselves seem more well-spoken than they are, or funnier, smarter. I start thinking that no one in the world is who they say they are, then my mind goes to how I also edit myself, not just online but in real life, except for those rare instances like right now where I'm ranting-even though that's a lie because I've had this train of thought before and damned if I didn't tweak it in my head a few times to make it sound better- and then my mind starts racing so furiously I can't control my thoughts, and I start thinking about robots and wondering if I'm even a real person.

— Adi Alsaid

Human beings are more or less formulas. Pun intended. We are not any one thing that is mathematically provable. We are more or less than we are anything. Furthermore, we are more or less kind, or more or less not. More or less selfish, happy, wise, lonely.

— Adi Alsaid

I hate technology. It provides so many different channels of loneliness. Every time you check your email and don’t see a new message, you know that, even though people have the ability to contact you at any time of the day from anywhere on the planet, no one is interested in doing so. Phones are constant reminders that 160 people you know fairly well have nothing to say to you most of the time.

— Adi Alsaid

I keep expecting to bump into you two on the road, but maybe the universe isn’t yet ready to handle you and me side by side again.

— Adi Alsaid

I'm a pretty forgetful guy, but everything she says, I remember. I remember what color her hair ribbon was when we met on the first day of fifth grade. Furthermore, I remember that she loves orchids because they look delicate but aren't, really. From a single postcard she sent me when traveling with her family two summers ago. I remember what my name looks like in her handwriting.

— Adi Alsaid

I'm usually a bit awkward in houses that I haven't been to before, so it's a way to not look weird. If I find something I've read before it automatically makes me more comfortable.

— Adi Alsaid