How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
That's just how it is. You can't rewrite history, or leave bits of it out just because it suits you. (1.11)
Or can you? Sam seems to be able to rewrite history by traveling to the future, checking it out, and then perfecting it by the time he gets there for real. When he first takes Rufus to the doc, he doesn't even know his son's real name. The second time around, though, he knows his name and what to do. It seems like history can be rewritten if time is on your side.
Quote #2
I dreamed my way through school for the next few weeks. I dreamed my way through life, really. It was all just waiting. (3.1)
When Sam first starts seeing Alicia, he's in a trance. He can't think straight, nor would he want to. He's so lost when it comes to everything but Alicia because she's all that he's focusing on. It's as if he spends most of his time asleep, unless Alicia is around.
Quote #3
In those few weeks, it was bad enough waking up in the morning and knowing that I wouldn't be seeing her until after school. That was torture. That was pulling out fingernails one by one. But on the Pizza Express day I woke up knowing that I wouldn't see her UNTIL THE END OF THE NEXT DAY. (3.32)
Yikes. Spending the day apart can seem like a lifetime when you really love someone. For Sam, time drags on slowly when he's hanging out with his mom. All he can think about is when he'll get to see Alicia next, and he can hardly wait until the next day so he can see her. It's funny to think that in just a few weeks, he's sick of spending time with her already.
Quote #4
Even if you sit at home watching daytime TV for the rest of your life, it's a future of sorts. But that was their attitude with me—don't mention the future, because I didn't have one. And then we all had to pretend that not having a future was OK. (4.18)
It's tough for Sam when he realizes no one expects much from him. At best, Alicia's parents think he'll find something to do but not really be successful. All this talk of the future makes Sam think about how he spends his time in his life and whether it really matters or not.
Quote #5
It was like a computer game, getting whizzed into the future. You had to think on your feet, really quickly. You were driving fast down a straight road and then suddenly something was coming straight at you and you had to swerve. Why would I be in trouble? I decided I wouldn't. (6.157)
Perhaps he's come around to the idea that living life is more important than just jumping in and out of it. Sam figures going to the future would be exhilarating, but when he gets there, he's lost. He doesn't know what's real anymore, and it's confusing for him. Time goes by at a set pace for a reason.
Quote #6
I remembered now the thing I hated most about the future, apart from being scared that I'd never get back to my own time. In the future, you never knew what you were supposed to be doing when. (12.20)
Check out that phrase "my own time." Sam desperately wants to go to the world that he feels comfortable in without jumping ahead to what's next. It's interesting because he tries to get out of dealing with his life by skipping town and going to Hastings. Maybe there are worse things than getting yelled at for getting a girl pregnant.
Quote #7
Who wouldn't want to visit the future and see what everyone was up to? But here I was, in the future, and I couldn't think of anything to do. The trouble was, it wasn't really the future future. If anyone ever asked me what the future was like, I could only tell them that I had a baby sister and a two-year-old kid. (12.102)
We get Sam's point. To him, the future is really interesting and scary, but it's just his future. No one—outside of his friends and family—would even care about it. There's never enough time for Sam to figure out other stuff that's going on in the future since he only visits quickly each time.
Quote #8
I worked out that there were two futures. There's the one I got whizzed to. And then there's the real future, the one you have to wait to see, the one you can't visit, the one you can only get to by living all the days in between… It had become less important. (13.57)
Boom. That's the sound of our minds being blown. Sam tells us this to explain how he's able to change what happens in the future by visiting it again. Even though he messes up the diaper change the first time around, he rocks it on round two. It turns out the real future is better than the fake one.
Quote #9
Maybe Tony Hawk was just stopping me from saying something I might have regretted one day. I know why Andrea wanted to talk. The waiting made everything seem like we only had a little bit of time to say what was on our minds, as if we were going to die in this room. (14.66)
Sam thinks Tony Hawk somehow transported him to the future to see what things will be like. We're not sure why TH would care about Sam's future or making him see the mundane moments that he does, but we're glad it makes Sam revaluate his actions.
Quote #10
It wouldn't help. I still wouldn't necessarily know him in fifteen actual years. I hate time. It never does what you want it to. (18.49)
We can't help but wonder whether Sam is actually annoyed at time or at not knowing the future. Sure, he gets to see tiny glimpses of his future, but he's not really aware of how it will make him feel. That's why he gets ticked at time (see what we did there?).