Well, I think that if you sincerely try to imagine what life is like for another person - not in a mocking way, not in a satirical way, but in a sincere, compassionate way - I don't think that's exploitive.

Ironically, writing a novel is not a way to sort out your confusion.

The better you learn to take care of yourself, the less you settle for being around people who can't or won't treat you as well as you're accustomed.

When you are a high school girl, there is nothing more miraculous than a high school boy.

In life we're most hell-bent on proving things that we're not really sure are true.

I think I write what's interesting to me, and so if I'm reading I like to have a very thorough idea of a character in a book that's by someone else.

It's different to read a book for pleasure than to read it analytically. In the past, I'd read Pride and Prejudice for pleasure. This time, I was really looking at the structure, the order of events, how the characters interact with each other and how the book is paced.