When I was growing up, I always read horror books, while my sister read romance novels.

Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is the way you can both hate and love something you are not sure you understand.

I was no Cherokee. I was no warrior. I was nobody special. I was just a girl, scared and angry. When I saw myself in Daddy Glen's eyes, I wanted to die. No, I wanted to be already dead, cold and gone. Everything felt hopeless. He looked at me and I was ashamed of myself. It was like sliding down an endless hole, seeing myself at the bottom, dirty, ragged, poor, stupid.

He never said "Don't tell your mama." He never had to say it. I did not know how to tell anyone what I felt, what scared me and shamed me... (109)

People begin to write in order to create what they have not found and, a little bit, to give something back.

I am the only one who can tell the story of my life and say what it means.

I don't believe that there is any true friendship without a bond of honor, and the honor in friendship is the respect you give the other that she also gives you.