How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It's when I turn on the bathroom light and wipe the fog off the mirror to comb my hair. It's what I see in the mirror. It's what I don't see. (1.3)
When this happens in a movie, it usually means that someone is a ghost, but in Bobby's case, it just means that he's become invisible. That's not any more rational than ghosts, but at least it means that he's still alive.
Quote #2
Leaving my house, riding the bus, walking through the library—when I did all that I was wearing a full set of clothes. And my eyes told my brain that everything was normal… Now I'm lost in space again, like the first trip down to the kitchen at breakfast in the morning. (3.14-15)
As you navigate the world, the image of your own body becomes a kind of anchor. After he becomes invisible, Bobby has the hardest time trying to figure out where he is in relation to the world.
Quote #3
You know how Hemingway writes? He couldn't write about this girl's face. Because he'd say something like, "It was a pretty face." And that wouldn't be enough. This face needs someone like Dickens, or maybe Tolstoy. Someone who'd take a whole page and spend some time on her eyebrows and her cheeks, or maybe notice the shape of her mouth when she's concentrating on walking with her cane. (4.4)
Calm down, Romeo. Bobby starts waxing poetic as soon as he meets Alicia. There's something about her appearance that just stops him in his tracks and makes him think of poetry.
Quote #4
In real life, no one looks at anyone else very long. I can always tell if someone is looking at me. Most people can, I think. Because when someone does look at you, and you notice it, you look back at them, and they look away, right? Especially strangers. (9.9)
Now that Bobby is invisible, he has all the time in the world to stare at people without them noticing—that's why he's able to check Alicia out for so long the first time he sees her. That's one perk of this whole situation.
Quote #5
She says to Alicia, "What does this young man wear when you meet with him?"
And Alicia says, "On really cold days, he wears Saran Wrap, but most of the time he's naked." Mrs. Van Dorn is not amused by this. (14.4-5)
Leave it to a mom to worry more about Bobby's nakedness than the fact that he's invisible. Mrs. Van Dorn is not pleased when she finds out that her daughter's been hanging out with a totally nude fifteen-year-old boy. For the record, our moms wouldn't be stoked either.
Quote #6
I gulp. I don't know what to say, but I don't want to sound flustered, so I say, "Another question: What do you see when you think of me? What do I look like in your mind? …Brad Pitt?" (18.120)
Bobby wants Alicia to see him as a total dream boat. If she could actually see his face, would she still be attracted to him? He's hoping that the answer is yes… because he is definitely attracted to her.
Quote #7
She pauses. "And I guess it doesn't matter. I really haven't been thinking about how you might look. It's more like… a feeling I have about you. I know you're honest, and smart. And kind, at least most of the time." (18.121)
Now that Alicia has gotten to know Bobby's personality, it doesn't even matter to her what he looks like. Him being handsome would just be an added bonus, but really, she cares about who he is inside.
Quote #8
Then I start watching Alicia's face. And it's amazing to me, because I can look at everything – the whole overpopulated, overtraveled, overtrucked, overpaved, overbillboarded, full-color, three-dimensional world zipping by at seventy miles an hour – and I can get bored. And Alicia's got nothing but her own thoughts and whatever she sees inside her head, and she's not bored at all. (20.27)
Oh, Bobby. Even with all the problems he's got going on, he's still a stereotypical love struck teenager. He could sit and stare at Alicia's face all day long without her knowledge… it'd be kind of creepy if she weren't into him too.
Quote #9
I look down, and there I am. My body. Me.
"I—I'm Bobby Phillips." And I'm naked, and I grab up a sweatshirt from the floor and use it to cover up. And I'm dazed, and I must look like an idiot because I can't stop grinning. (27.21)
A normal teenage boy would be mortified if a bunch of strangers caught him with his pants down at home, but Bobby isn't normal. He's just come back from the land of invisibility, and it feels good to see his body again… even if he's not the only one in the room.
Quote #10
"… I don't want to start worrying about my weight and my hair and all that junk again. I like who I am, and I've got a life that works fine. It's fine for me. So I'm going with it." (28.21)
Sheila isn't interested in seeing what she looks like anymore. She likes who she is better without having to study her appearance in the mirror, and that makes sense. Maybe it would be nice to not have to worry about weight, or wrinkles, or hair anymore.