The problem with all these fiercely individualistic girls was that they were all exactly the same.

Dexter, I love you so much. So, so much, and I probably always will. I just don't like you anymore. I'm sorry.

…surprised all over again at how very comforting very bad food can be.

She used to pride herself on her refusal to see two sides of an argument, but increasingly she accepts that issues are more ambiguous and complicated than she once thought.

As new dawns go, this one is depressingly like the old dawn.

…and you smile back and try not to think about the fact that you have nothing, absolutely nothing, to say to each other.

David Holdaway was my stage name. I was an actor for about eight years in the '90s. I had to change my name because there was another David Nicholls, and I thought if I changed it to my mother's name, she'd be touched.