Be careful what you wish for. I know that for a fact. Wishes are brutal, unforgiving things. They burn your tongue the moment they're spoken and you can never take them back.

I knew what it was to yearn for a life so distant it seemed that it had never been anything more than a dream.

No barrier was strong enough to keep out the movement of time.

Sometimes words drew blood, they cut your tongue, they made you know things you couldn't unknow.

When I write for teens, I feel I can cut through everything and get to the bare bones. I can get straight into the emotional world of the character.

You build your world around someone, and then what happens when he disappears? Where do you go-into pieces, into atoms, into the arms of another man? You go shopping, you cook dinner, you work odd hours, you make love to someone else on June nights. But you're not really there.

Real love, after all, was worth the price you paid, however briefly it might last.