I look back on my 20s. It's supposed to be the prime of your life, the most vital, the most beautiful. But you're making your critical decisions and sometimes your most critical mistakes.

I agree that a love of reading is a great gift for a parent to pass on to his or her child.

To write a story, I think you really have to open yourself up to the world.

She kept walking. The very small, brave part of her brain knew that this would be her one chance. If she turned around, she would lose it.

All I could think to do was love her. That's all a person can do.

It was like a dream you might have after death in which lost people came back to life, your friends loved you again no matter what you had done, and your failures were unaccountably forgiven.

Shy” was the sympathetic interpretation she got from older people. “Snotty” was the interpretation she got from people her own age.