Something with inner beauty will live forever, like the scent of a rose.

It would be so great to have someone my own age to talk to, even if it was just about books.

I wrote poetry, journals, and, especially, plays for the neighborhood kids to perform. I had an ordinary, happy childhood. Nothing much was going on, but I had fun.

Maybe we judge people too much by their looks because it's easier than seeing what's really important.

Although my other ambition was to be a musical theater star (and I would attend college on a voice scholarship), writing was never far from my mind.

I was painfully shy, and I had tremendous difficulty making friends. So, lacking friends, I watched other people. Watching is something all writers must do, and it was in junior high that I learned to do it.

Every girl pretends she is a princess at one point, no matter how little her life is like that.