You've got to have someone who loves your body. Who doesn't define you, but sees you. Who loves what he sees. Who you don't have to struggle to be good enough for.

One of the hardest tasks as a human being is knowing when to keep an open mind, and when not to.

Love is ease, love is comfort, love is support and respect. Love is not punishing or controlling. Love lets you grow and breathe. Love's passion is only good passion -- swirling-leaves-on-a-fall-day passion, a-sky-full-of-magnificent-stars passion -- not angst and anxiety. Love is not hurt and harm. Love is never unsafe. Love is sleeping like puzzle pieces. It's your own garden you protect; it's a field of wildflowers you move about in both freely and together.

I know parental embarrassment usually stops somewhere at fifteen, but he just kept on giving me good reasons.

No, Mom. I said fine." "It's just your tone." Ah, yes- the tone. The nasty traitor.

I guess forgiveness, like happiness, isn’t a final destination. You don’t one day get there and get to stay.

Becoming a YA author was actually a very lucky accident. When I wrote the Queen of Everything, I thought it was a book for adults.