"I sat down and picked up my pen and thought for a
minute. Remembering. Remembering a handsome, dark boy with a
reckless grin and a hot temper. A tough, towheaded boy with a
cigarette in his mouth and a bitter grin on his hard face.
Remembering — and this time it didn't hurt —
a quiet, defeated-looking sixteen-year-old whose hair needed
cutting badly and who had black eyes with a frightened
expression to them. One week had taken all three of them. And
I decided that I could tell people, beginning with my English
teacher. 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 .
. ."
— Ponyboy Curtis, The Outsiders