it was not enough to be the last guy she kissed. i wanted to be the last one she loved.

Getting a life’ is something only a complete idiot could believe. Like you can just drive to a store and get a life. See it in its shiny box and look inside the plastic window and catch a glimpse of yourself in a new life and say, ‘Wow, I look much happier — I think this is the life I need to get!’, take it to the counter, ring it up, put it on your credit card. If getting a life was that easy, we’d be one blissed-out race.

Different authors write different ways, have different relationships with their audiences, and those are all legitimate.

Finally, I decided that the proper strategy was to stare back. Boys do not have a monopoly on the Staring Business.

I was a fairly shy person - not the hand raising type.

As far as all of our identities are dependent on how other people imagine us we are all making ourselves and each other up all the time

I thought of the one thing about home that I missed, my dad's study with its built-in, floor-to-ceiling shelves sagging with thick biographies and the black leather chair that kept me just uncomfortable enough to keep from feeling sleepy as I read.