After a while, the characters I'm writing begin to feel real to me. That's when I know I'm heading in the right direction

When I read Jerome D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" that was the first time I felt my mind blow open. I thought that book was speaking to me. I was 12 or 13 when I read that. I read everything on my mother's bookshelves.

I think growing up is difficult and it's a process that I'm always interested in, with kids and adults, they are often on two different universes.

Sometimes the right thing feels all wrong until it is over and done with.

He fell in love with the way she closed her eyes, long before he fell in love with her.

I could hardly get a boy to look at me. All right, they'd look, they'd even take me out, but no one asked for a second date. I was too nasty, a real wise guy, and all the boys could tell what my rotten disposition was. Deep down, I wanted a commitment with a capital C. To get anywhere with me, a boy would have to sign his undying loyalty with his own blood.

Holding a tear back makes them drain upward, higher and higher, until one day your head just explodes and you're left with a stub of a neck and nothing more.