As pathetic as it was, she'd rather hold on to the possibility of something perfect than be hit with the reality of nothing much.

I get some of my ideas from watching my three daughters, but most of them come from my own memories of growing up. I can remember how romantic I was, not just about love, but romance in the classic sense - the romantic ideals: of honor and truth, of loyalty, sacrifice and fairness. Those were the elements that made a story satisfying to me.

Love was more than blind. It was deaf and dumb, too. It was catatonic. It was vegetative.

I know you think that when you're 35, 45, 55, you'll be different. But I'm going to let you in on a bit of a secret. You're going to look different, and your life is going to be different, but in your head you'll always be that 16-year-old girl.

I am seventeen. The good things about seventeen is that you’re not sixteen. Sixteen goes with the word sweet, and I am so far from sweet.

But the way I see it, dying without knowing love would be a tragedy.

I don't do rewrites. I put all the pages in a pile next to the typewriter.