How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I am a little worried, since the last time I painted there were numbers on the paper telling me which colors to use. I am an ace doodler, but other than that my artistic repertoire is quite limited. (8.48)
Paul is nervous that Noah will think his painting is stupid, but he makes an effort because he likes Noah so much. Take note: this is almost always the right thing to do, especially with a cute boy.
Quote #2
I touch the brush to the paper and try to make it soar in time with the song. I swoop it up, then down, then up again. I am not painting a shape. I am painting the tune. (8.64)
Sometimes finding a new way of looking at something that scares you, or that you're not good at, is like finding a new key to an old door.
Quote #3
He is concentrating on the music now, moving his brush in an arc. He is completely in tune with the trumpet that solos above the beat. His mood reflects indigo. (8.76)
When Paul enters Noah's studio and sees his mood as a color, he's learning to speak Noah's language. He's seeing who Noah really is for the first time.
Quote #4
I do not stop to listen, but instead work it into my canvas. My flights of color are meeting his dancer somewhere in the middle of the room. We do not need to speak to be aware of each other's presence. (8.100)
The last sentence is generally true anytime you're with your mega-crush, but the fact that Paul's found an alternate way to communicate with Noah right off the bat is pretty sweet. It's sort of like his made-up twin language with Tony.
Quote #5
Chuck asks me about movies, because Joni must have told him I like movies. But he only asks me about the movies he's seen, so he can give his own opinion. Opinions like, "That helicopter chase was intense" and "She can't act, but she sure is a babe." (9.61)
In contrast to Noah, Chuck is perhaps the least artful person ever—it's safe to say he and Joni aren't spending the weekends watching Bergman films. Old football footage seems more up his alley.
Quote #6
Noah and I start to talk about our favorite books and our favorite paintings – sharing our Indicators, hoping the other person will appreciate them as much. (10.64)
Our artistic preferences are a kind of shorthand for who we are. They help us condense our life stories into a sensory language; a series of packages to hand over to those we want to love us.
Quote #7
The colors come first. Red. Orange. Aquamarine. Flashes of solid color, like origami paper lit by television light. After going through colors, I picture patterns—stripes, slants, dots. Sometimes I pass through an image in a split second. Others I hold on to. I pause on the way to Elsewhere. And then I'm there. (16.4)
Paul uses colors and images to take him away from reality and to Elsewhere, his meditative world. He uses music as an image-making tool in much the same way Noah does, but without painting it.
Quote #8
This isn't Elsewhere; this is Somewhere. I try to switch back to colors and patterns, but all of them now come from Noah's brush.
Seeing the world through Noah's eyes has made it impossible for Paul to see things the way he did before. That's what good art—and love—tend to do.
Quote #9
He's changed the perspective—it's now a portrait looking slightly down. The candlelight makes her expression waver; her lines blur. The thing that strikes me the most is the portrait's silence. (22.94)
Dig it: Kyle can draw too. Paul loves him the artsy boys. Note that when Kyle tries to communicate through art, Paul no longer feels the electricity that he feels with Noah. Instead all he feels is silence.
Quote #10
I give him materials of love, materials of hope, and like an expert quiltmaker, he sews them together into something grand and entire. (24.29)
D.J. Zeke does with emotions what the talented and creative strive to do: he turns them into art. In this case, his art melts a little of the protective ice around Noah's once-warm heart. (See? We almost pulled off a poem there. You don't need meter if the last words rhyme, right?)