The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, is a novel about a fourteen-year-old boy called “Ponyboy.”
Ponyboy and his brothers are members of a greaser gang, considered hoods.
The Socs, a rich gang on the east side, are their rivals. Pony meets a soc named Cherry and finds something in common: the love of sunsets.
But Ponyboy and his friend Johnny have a deadly encounter with Cherry’s boyfriend. Ponyboy and Johnny go on the run until things cool down.
Johnny, who has a bad reputation, risks his life by making a courageous rescue.
The Outsiders Quotes With Page Numbers
“I like to watch movies undisturbed so I can get into them and live them with the actors. When I see a movie with someone it’s kind of uncomfortable, like having someone read your book over your shoulder.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Pages 1, 2
“Greasers can’t walk alone too much or they’ll get jumped, or someone will come by and scream “Greaser!” at them, which doesn’t make you feel too hot, if you know what I mean. We get jumped by the Socs. I’m not sure how you spell it, but it’s the abbreviation for the Socials, the jet set, the West-side rich kids. It’s like the term “greaser,” which is used to class all us boys on the East Side.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about greasers, social class, identity (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 2
“I’m not saying that either Socs or greasers are better; that’s just the way things are.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about greasers, identity (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 3
“His eyes are dark brown—lively, dancing, recklessly laughing eyes that can be gentle and sympathetic one moment and blazing with anger the next.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 8
“He gets drunk on just plain living. And he understands everybody.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Soda, friendship (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 8
“He liked fights, blonds, and for some unfathomable reason, school.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Two-Bit (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 10
“Tough and tuff are two different words. Tough is the same as tough; tuff means cool, sharp–like a tuff-looking Mustang or a tuff record. In our neighborhood both are compliments.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about identity (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 12
“I had to read Great Expectations for English, and that kid Pip, he reminded me of us—the way he felt marked lousy because he wasn’t a gentleman or anything, and the way that girl kept looking down on him.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about social class, identity (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 15
“We deserve a lot of our trouble.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Dally (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 16
“You are in love with Sandy?” What’s it like?”
“Hhhmmm.” He sighed happily. “It’s real nice.”
~Susan Eloïse Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: 1st Ponyboy, 2nd: Soda), Chapter 1, Page 18
“I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 18
“Greaser…greaser…greaser…” Steve singsonged. “O victim of environment, underprivileged, rotten, no-count hood!”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about greasers, stereotypes, identity (Character: Steve Randle), Chapter 2, Page 21
“You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you’re a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don’t stick up for them, stick together, make like brothers, it isn’t a gang anymore. It’s a pack. A snarling, distrustful, bickering park like the Socs in their social clubs or the street gangs in New York or the wolves in the timber.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about friends, sticking together, social class, identity (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 2, Page 26
“I don’t care too much for girls yet. Soda says I’ll grow out of it. He did.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 2, Page 31
“Things are rough all over.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about social class, stereotypes (Character: Cherry Valance), Chapter 2, Page 35
“I really couldn’t see what the Socs would have to sweat about – good grades, good cars, good girls, madras and Mustangs and Corvairs – Man, I thought, if I had worries like that I’d consider myself lucky.
I know better now.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about social class, stereotypes (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 2, Page 36
“Rat race is the perfect name for it,’ she said. ‘We’re always going and going and going, and never asking where. Did you ever hear of having more than you wanted? So that you couldn’t want anything else and then started looking for something else to want? It seems like we’re always searching for something to satisfy us, and never finding it. Maybe if we could lose our cool we would.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about social class, stereotypes, identity (Character: Cherry Valance), Chapter 3, Page 38
“You’re not so smart at ten.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 3, Page 40
“You read a lot, don’t you, Ponyboy?”
I was startled. “Yeah, why?”
“I could just tell. I’ll bet you watch sunsets, too.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about friendship (Characters: 1st: Cherry Valance, 2nd: Ponyboy), Chapter 3, Page 40
“It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about stereotypes, identity (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 3, Pages 40, 41
“Looking tough comes in handy.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about stereotypes (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 3, Page 45
“I couldn’t ever cut anyone.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about identity (Character: Ponyboy), Chapter 3, Page 45
“It’s okay,” I said, wishing I was dead and buried somewhere.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 3, Page 46
“I could fall in love with Dallas Winston,” she said. “I hope I never see him
again, or I will.”~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Dally (Character: Cherry Valance), Chapter 3, Page 46
“It’s okay. We aren’t in the same class. Just don’t forget that some of us watch the sunset too.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about social class, stereotypes (Character: Ponyboy), Chapter 3, Page 46
“It was a cold night and all I had was that sweat shirt, but I could watch stars in subzero weather.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 3, Page 47
“I only wanted to lie on my back under a tree and read a book or draw a picture, and not worry about being jumped or carrying a blade or ending up married to some scatterbrained broad with no sense,”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about social class (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 3, Page 48
“Since I was dreaming, I brought Mom and Dad back to life…”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 3, Page 48
“My mother was golden and beautiful.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 3, Page 48
“…At least you got Soda. I ain’t got nobody.’ ‘Shoot,’ I said, startled out of my misery, ‘you got the whole gang. Dally didn’t slug you tonight cause you’re the pet. I mean, golly, Johnny, you got the whole gang.’ ‘It ain’t the same as having your own folks care about you,’ Johnny said simply. ‘it just ain’t the same.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about friends (Character: Johnny Cade and Ponyboy), Chapter 3, Pages 51, 52
“I killed him,” he said slowly. “I killed that boy.” Bob, the handsome Soc, was lying there in the moonlight, doubled up and still. A dark pool was growing from him, spreading slowly over the blue-white cement. I looked at Johnny’s hand. He was clutching his switchblade, and it was dark to the hilt. My stomach gave a violent jump and my blood turned icy.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Johnny Cade and Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 4, Page 56
“It would be a miracle if Dally loved anything. The fight for self-preservation had hardened him beyond caring.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Dally (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 4, Page 59
“bewildering feeling of being rushed, things are happening too quick. Too fast. I figured I couldn’t get into any worse trouble than murder. Johnny and I would be hiding for the rest of our lives. Nobody but Dally would know where we were, and he couldn’t tell anyone because he’d get jailed again for giving us that gun. If Johnny got caught, they’d give him the electric chair, and if they caught me, I’d be sent to a reformatory. I’d heard about reformatories from Curly Shepard and I didn’t want to go to one at all. So we’d have to be hermits for the rest of our lives…”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about sticking together (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 4, Page 65
“I can lie so easily that it spooks me sometimes— Soda says it comes form reading so much. But then, Two-Bit lias all the time too, and he never opens a book.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 4, Page 65
“But that day…well, Soda can’t sit still long enough to enjoy a movie, much less a sermon. It wasn’t long before he and Steve and Two-Bit were throwing paper wads at each other and clowning around, and finally Steve dropped a hymn book with a bang–accidentally, of course. Everyone in the place turned to look around at us, and Johnny and I nearly crawled under the pews. And then Two-Bit waved at them.
I hadn’t been to church since.”~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 4, Page 66
“…his teachers thought he was just dumb. But he wasn’t. He was just a little slow to get things, and he liked to explore things once he did get them.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Two-Bit, stereotypes (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 5, Page 75
“I liked my books and clouds and sunsets.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 5, Page 76
“Dally was so real he scared me.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Dally (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 5, Page 76
“The dawn was coming then. All the lower valley was covered with mist, and sometimes little pieces of it broke off and floated away in small clouds. The sky was lighter in the east, and the horizon was a thin golden line. The clouds changed from gray to pink, and the mist was touched with gold. There was a silent moment when everything held its breath, and then the sun rose. It was beautiful.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 5, Page 77
“Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.”~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy Robert Frost’s poem), Chapter 5, Page 77
“I never noticed colors and and clouds and stuff until you kept reminding me about them. It seems like they were never there before.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about friends (Character: Johnny Cade), Chapter 5, Page 78
“Johnny, you don’t know what a few months in jail can do to you, man. You get mean in jail, I just don’t wanna see that happen to you like it happened to me, man. Understand?”-Dallas Winston”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Dally, identity (Character: Dallas Winston, A.K.A. Dally), Chapter 6, Page 89
“…are you just professional heroes or something?”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Jerry Wood), Chapter 6, Page 95
“Suddenly I realized, horrified, that Darry was crying. He didn’t make a sound, but tears were running down his cheeks. I hadn’t seen him cry in years, not even when Mom and Dad had been killed. (I remembered the funeral. I had sobbed in spite of myself; Soda had broken down and bawled like a baby; but Darry had only stood there, his fists in his pockets and that look on his face, the same helpless, pleading look that he was wearing now.) In that second what Soda and Dally and Two-Bit had been trying to tell me came through. Darry did care about me, maybe as much as he cared about Soda, and because he cared he was trying too hard to make something of me. When he yelled “Pony, where have you been all this time?” he meant “Pony, you’ve scared me to death. Please be careful, because I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to you.” Darry looked down and turned away silently. Suddenly I broke out of my daze. “Darry!” I screamed, and the next thing I knew I had him around the waist and was squeezing the daylights out of him. “Darry,” I said, “I’m sorry . . .” He was stroking my hair and I could hear the sobs racking him as he fought to keep back the tears. “Oh, Pony, I thought we’d lost you . . . like we did Mom and Dad . . .” That was his silent fear then—of losing another person he loved. I remembered how close he and Dad had been, and I wondered how I could ever have thought him hard and unfeeling. I listened to his heart pounding through his T-shirt and knew everything was going to be okay now. I had taken the long way around, but I was finally home. To stay.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator and Darry and Ponyboy), Chapter 6, Pages 98-99
“Maybe people are younger when they are asleep.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 7, Page 104
“What’s the safest thing to be when one is met by a gang of social outcasts in an alley? …No, another social outcast!”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about stereotypes (Character: 1st: Two-bit, 2nd: Ponyboy), Chapter 7, Page 113
“You oughta see Kathy’s brother. Now there’s a hood. He’s so greasy he glides when he walks. He goes to the barber for an oil change, not a haircut.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about greasers (Character: Two-Bit), Chapter 7, Page 114
“You know the rules. No jazz before a rumble.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Two-Bit), Chapter 7, Page 115
“Greaser ‘ didn’t have anything to do with it. My buddy over there wouldn’t have done it. Maybe you would have done the same thing, maybe a friend of yours wouldn’t have. It’s the individual.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about greasers, stereotypes (Character: Randy Adderson), Chapter 7, Page 115
“…people get hurt in rumbles, maybe killed. I’m sick of it because it doesn’t do any good. You can’t win…even if you whip us. You’ll still be where you were before- at the bottom. And we’ll still be the lucky ones with all the breaks. So it doesn’t do any good, the fighting and the killing. It doesn’t prove a thing. Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs. Sometimes I think it’s the ones in the middle that are really the lucky stiffs . .”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about greasers, identity, social class (Character: Ponyboy), Chapter 7, Page 117
“You get a little money and the whole world hates you.”
“No,” I said, “you hate the whole world.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about social class (Character: Randy Adderson), Chapter 7, Page 117
“Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about social class, stereotypes (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 7, Page 118
“Johnny almost grinned as he nodded. “Tuff enough,” he managed, and by the way his eyes were glowing, I figured Southern gentlemen had nothing on Johnny Cade.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Johnny Cade and Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 8, Page 120
“We needed Johnny as much as he needed the gang. And for the same reason.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about sticking together, friends (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 8, Page 121
“I don’t want to die now. It ain’t long enough. Sixteen years ain’t long enough. I wouldn’t mind it so much if there wasn’t so much stuff I ain’t done yet and so many things I ain’t seen. It’s not fair.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Johnny Cade), Chapter 8, Page 121
“Sixteen years on the streets and you can learn a lot. But all the wrong things, not the things you want to learn. Sixteen years on the streets and you see a lot. But all the wrong sights, not the things you want to see.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about social class (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 8, Page 122
“Can you see the sunset real good on the West side? …You can see it on the East side, too.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about social class (Character: Ponyboy and Cherry), Chapter 8, Pages 129, 130
“How come you like fights, Darry?”
…He just likes to show off his muscles”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Characters: Ponyboy and Sodapop), Chapter 9, Page 133
“I am a greaser. I am a JD and a hood. I blacken the name of our fair city. I beat up people. I rob gas stations. I am a menace to society. Man do I have fun!”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about greasers, identity, stereotypes (Character: Sodapop), Chapter 9, Page 136
“Two-Bit was the only one wearing a jacket; he had a couple of cans of beer stuffed in it. He always gets high before a rumble. Before anything else, too, come to think of it. I shook my head. I’d hate to see the day when I had to get my nerve from a can.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Two-Bit (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 9, Page 137
“There isn’t any real good reason for fighting except self-defense.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 9, Page 137
“That’s why people don’t ever think to blame the Socs and are always ready to jump on us. We look hoody and they look decent. It could be just the other way around – half of the hoods I know are pretty decent guys underneath all that grease, and from what I’ve heard, a lot of Socs are just cold-blooded mean – but people usually go by looks.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about stereotypes, identity (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 9, Page 141
“They shouldn’t hate each other . . . I don’t hate the Socs any more . . . they shouldn’t hate . . .”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about stereotypes, identity (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 9, Page 143
“You get tough like me and you don’t get hurt. You look out for yourself and nothin’ can touch you…”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about identity (Character: Dallas Winston, A.K.A. Dally), Chapter 9, Page 147
“Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold . . .” The pillow seemed to sink a little, and Johnny died.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Johnny Cade), Chapter 9, Page 148
“Johnny was the only thing Dally loved. And now Johnny was gone.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Dally (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 10, Page 152
“Darry took a step toward me, but I backed away. “Don’t touch me,” I said. My heart was pounding in slow thumps, throbbing at the side of my head, and I wondered if everyone else could hear it. Maybe that’s why they’re all looking at me, I thought, they can hear my heart beating…”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy), Chapter 10, Page 153
“…yesterday was years ago. A lifetime ago.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 10, Page 154
“…I knew he would be dead, because Dally Winston wanted to be dead and he always got what he wanted.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Dally (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 10, Page 154
“Two of my friends died that night: one a hero, the other a hoodlum.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about friends, stereotypes (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 10, Page 154
“He died violent and young and desperate, just like we all knew he’d die someday.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Dally (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 10, Page 154
“I´d rather have anybody´s hate than their pity”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 11, Page 162
“Get smart and nothing can touch you.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as narrator), Chapter 12, Page 171
“Ponyboy, listen, don’t get tough. You’re not like the rest of us and don’t try to be…”
What was the matter with Two-Bit? I knew as well as he did that if you got tough you didn’t get hurt. Get smart and nothing can touch you…
“What in the world are you doing?” Two-Bit’s voice broke into my thoughts.
I looked up at him. “Picking up the glass.”He stared at me for a second, then grinned. “You little sonofagun,” he said in a relieved voice. I didn’t know what he was talking about, so I just went on picking up the glass from the bottle end and put it in a trash can. I didn’t want anyone to get a flat tire.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about identity (Character: Two-Bit and Ponyboy), Chapter 12, Page 171
“…you don’t just stop living because you lose someone. I thought you knew that by now. You don’t quit!”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about friendship (Character: Darry), Chapter 12, Page 173
“If we don’t have each other, we don’t have anything.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about sticking together, friendship (Character: Ponyboy), Chapter 12, Page 176
“Race you,” I challenged, leaping up. It was a real nice night for a race. The air was clear and cold and so clean it almost sparkled. The moon wasn’t out but the stars lit up everything. It was quiet except for the sound of our feet on the cement and the dry, scraping sound of leaves blowing across the street. It was a real nice night. I guess I was still out of shape, because we all thee tied. No. I guess we all just wanted to stay together.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about sticking together, friendship (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 12, Page 177
“You know a guy a longtime, and I mean really know him, you don’t get used to the idea that he’s dead just overnight.”
~S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about friendship (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 12, Page 178
“I guess he had listened to more beefs and more problems from more people than any of us. A guy that’ll really listen to you, listen and care about what you’re saying, is something rare.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Johnny, friendship (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 12, Page 178
“I’ve been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy that wrote it, he meant you’re gold when you’re a kid, like green. When you’re a kid everything’s new, dawn. It’s just when you get used to everything that it’s day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That’s gold. Keep that way, it’s a good way to be.”
~Susan E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Johnny Cade’s note to Ponyboy) Chapter 12, Page 178
“You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want. There’s still lots of good in the world. Tell Dally. I don’t think he knows.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Johnny Cade’s note to Ponyboy), Chapter 12, Page 179
“It was too late to tell Dally. Would he have listened? I doubted it. Suddenly it wasn’t only a personal thing to me. I could picture hundreds and hundreds of boys living on the wrong sides of cities, boys with black eyes who jumped at their own shadows. Hundreds of boys who maybe watched sunsets and looked at stars and ached for something better. I could see boys going under street lights because they were mean and tough and hated the world, and it was too late to tell them that there was still good in it, and they wouldn’t believe you if you did. It was too much of a problem to be just a personal thing. There should be some help, someone should tell them before it was too late. Someone should tell their side of the story, and maybe people would understand then and wouldn’t be so quick to judge a boy by the amount of hair oil he wore.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Dally, stereotypes (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 12, Page 179
“I wondered for a long time how to start that theme, how to start writing about something that was important to me. And I finally began like this: When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home…”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 12, Page 180
I lie to myself all the time. but i never believe me. page number
This line is on page 18, from Ponyboy, the narrator of The Outsiders.
Get smart and nothing can touch you page number
This quote by Two-Bit from The Outsiders is on page 171.
if we don’t have each other we don’t have anything page number.
This quote by Ponyboy in The Outsiders is on page Page 176.
who said if we don’t have each other we don’t have anything in the outsiders?
Ponyboy said this line in The Outsiders.
Further Reading
The Outsiders Characters Traits and Analysis
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