It's because of libraries that books like mine get recommended to book clubs and avid readers, who in turn pass them onto others looking to be whisked away from the world for a little while...and perhaps to learn a bit about themselves in the process.

A girl who is thirteen-which is hard, and difficult, and beautiful, and painful, and exhilarating.

...because he believed that if you wanted to get rid of a hole, you filled it. He had not realized at the time that there were all sorts of filler that took up space, but had no substance. That made you feel just as empty.

Your problem is that you have been too honest for too long. Once you start doing it, lying is simpler than breathing.

She's not classically beautiful, but somehow that only makes her more interesting.

there's something nice about knowing that i'm not the only one who doesn't quite fit the part.

But mostly I wondered why the head could move so swiftly while the heart dragged its feet. I still loved him. It felt like anything else permanent that has gone missing; a lost tooth, a severed leg. You might know better, but that doesn’t keep your tongue from poling at the hole in your gum, or your phantom limb from aching.