# Quote — Robert Cormier, The Rag and Bone Shop

> The real reason was all the things Jason had seen Bobo do over the course of the year. Sly stuff. Tripping someone, pulling a guy's shirt out of his pants, slamming a locker door so that Johnny Moran's fingers got caught and jammed. Nobody did anything about Bobo. Merely accepted his actions. Or maybe didn't see his mean little tricks. But Jason prided himself on his powers of observation. When you're an outsider, and not part of the bunch, you're in a position to see what others don't see.

- Author: [Robert Cormier](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-cormier.md)
- Book: [The Rag and Bone Shop](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-cormier/the-rag-and-bone-shop.md)
- Page: 23
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Cormier#The_Rag_and_Bone_Shop_(2000)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-cormier/the-rag-and-bone-shop/the-real-reason

## More from this book

> Mr. Trent puzzled him. He seemed friendly, like he really wanted to help find out who had murdered Alicia, wanted to help Jason remember what had really happened that day, but at the same time there was something strange about his questions. Jason used the word strange for want of a better word. He couldn't figure Trent out or what he wanted Jason to say. Sometimes he seemed unfriendly, like Jason had done something wrong, had broken a rule,a rule Jason didn't even know about. And those eyes of his. Like black marbles but alive, that didn't blink very much, that seemed to look right into your brain.

p. 98 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-cormier/the-rag-and-bone-shop/mr-trent-puzzled.md)

> The transcript lay there, waiting for him as he hung up the telephone. Waiting for him to open it again. Trent Interview. Subject: Dorrant. Jason Dorrant. Poor kid, but at least he was young, free, not caught and fixed in time, as if frozen in ambers. Like so many others. Like me. You are what you do, Lottie had said. But now I don't do anything.

p. 149 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-cormier/the-rag-and-bone-shop/the-transcript-lay.md)

> Trent could see the despair in the boy's eyes, his body drooping with weariness, the trembling of his chin, the tears staining his cheeks. He sensed the imminent moment of success, felt the sweet thrill of triumph, everything else cast aside for the moment, all doubts gone. This was what he was hired to do, what he was born to do. You are what you do. Ah, Lottie. Ah, Sarah. Five minutes later, the boy uttered the words Trent needed to hear. As the machine whirred, recording the bruised and broken voice.

p. 142 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-cormier/the-rag-and-bone-shop/trent-could-see.md)