I write adult fiction, but a good 40 to 50 per cent of my readers are teenagers. I love that if they have to grow up and move past JK Rowling they can move to me. From Jo to Jodi!

There are all sorts of experiences we can't really put a name to...The birth of a child, for one. Or the death of a parent. Falling in love. Words are like nets--we hope they'll cover what we mean, but we know they can't possibly hold that much joy, grief, or wonder. Finding God is like that, too. If it's happened to you, you know what it feels like. But try to describe it to someone else--and language only takes you so far.

After a certain point, a heart with so many stress fractures can never be anything but broken.

I don't know whether you can look at your past and find, woven like the hidden symbols on a treasure map, the path that will point to your final destination.

I don't understand why it's a sin if you love something and want to keep it from having to suffer.

He gently touched his mother's cheek, felt her sorrow slip over his fingertips.

Anger, though, is too fierce a flame to last for long, and when it burned out, I was left numb and wondering.