How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
There are no prizes for guessing the mistake my thirty-two-year-old mother made, and the same goes for my thirty-three-year-old father. My mum's dad made the mistake of thinking he was going to be a footballer. (2.22)
We get the sense that Sam thinks about the consequences of decisions more often than the average sixteen year old. He worries about how his life will turn out if he makes the same choices as his parents. Alas, all that worrying doesn't stop him from making some pretty similar choices.
Quote #2
There were a couple of young mums at my school, and they acted like a baby was an iPod or a new mobile or something, some kind of gadget that they wanted to show off. There are many differences between a baby and an iPod. And one of the biggest differences is, no one's going to mug you for your baby. (2.167)
Well, Sam's right about this: Babies aren't iPods. Despite all of his talk about the choices other people are making, however, Sam still winds up with a baby. Go figure.
Quote #3
What's incredible to me is that you can keep out of trouble pretty much every minute of your life apart from maybe five seconds, and that five seconds can get you into the worst trouble of all, just about. It's amazing, when you think about it. (3.96)
This quote pretty much sums up the book. Why? It's essentially all about what happens when one decision you make is the wrong one. If not for a few seconds in the sack, Sam and Alicia wouldn't be in the predicament they are in. Slam asks us to think about our choices and what can happen from just one.
Quote #4
I looked at her. Had? I had a future? Where was it now? I wanted her to tell me that everything was going to be all right. I wanted her to say that she'd survived, so I could too. But she wasn't telling me that. She was telling me that I didn't have a future anymore. (9.264)
His mom tells him he has no future, and Sam gets upset (if only in his mind). He feels like everyone thinks he's erased all of his choices in life, even though he doesn't think this is true. Hmm… we can't help but wonder whether Sam's mom is right. Has he taken away his future, or can is still be however he wants?
Quote #5
"So you don't know what you think yet, do you? You can't possibly know whether you want to keep it or not."
"Oh, I know that," said Alicia. "I'm not killing my baby." (9.298-299)
Quick to make decisions, Alicia knows what she wants. She knows an abortion is not right for her and tells everyone as much right away. We can see the difference between Sam (who runs away and then wonders why everyone is freaking out) and Alicia (who researches her decision online and then sticks to her guns) in how they make choices.
Quote #6
The important bit was that their plans for Alicia had gone up in smoke. I don't really think they had any actual plans, to be honest, but whatever plans they had didn't involve a baby. People like them didn't have a pregnant daughter, and they couldn't get their heads around it, you could see that. (11.3)
It doesn't matter whether Alicia's parents had concrete plans or not. The fact is—according to them—her future is gone. Part of why they are so angry with Sam is because they feel he took away Alicia's choices in life. They want her to get to decide what she'll do instead of having someone else decide for her.
Quote #7
"Well. I didn't have a choice, did I? I was carrying you around with me. I couldn't escape."
"You mean blokes can get out of it?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My mum! Telling me I should run! (11.83-84)
It's never nice to hear that your mom felt obligated to take care of you. While that's not exactly what Sam's mom means here, it's clear that she felt trapped in some ways when she got pregnant. It's also clear that she doesn't want her son to feel the same way.
Quote #8
You should never drag stuff out of a nice conversation and chuck it back in the middle of a nasty one. Instead of one good memory and one bad memory, you're left with two s***ty ones. (16.165)
Sam's not sure why he brought up some dirt on Alicia just to get back at her, but he did. Sam needs to learn to think before he acts—his choices keep negatively affecting his life.
Quote #9
The thing was, though, I had no choice but to wait. There wouldn't be any point in hurrying it up, would there? How would that work? I couldn't cram fifteen years of knowing Roof into two or three, could I? (18.48)
Thinking about controlling Roof's choices in life, Sam realizes he won't be able to control them whatsoever. It's one of the toughies for parents. They don't get to tell their kids what to decide as they grow up. Sigh.
Quote #10
"You don't think you are," said Andrea. "You think you're doing the right thing, sleeping with the father of your children, because you want everyone to be together. And then one decade goes past, and another, and you realize that nobody else would ever want you, and you've wasted all this time sticking with something that any sane person would have got out of years before." (19.118)
As Andrea scolds Alicia and Sam for sleeping together, we realize there's more to the story. It's not just that she's ticked at her daughter for jumping into bed with a guy, she's also mad that Alicia is repeating Andrea's mistakes. We should point out that Andrea hints at the fact that she's only really with her husband because they had kids together. Ouch.