I like to write about people who are real and likeable. I like to write about people who tell their stories in that close and intimate voice we use with best friends. I love the closeness and honesty and vulnerability that come from characters who can talk that way.

And despite everything I know now, I still believe, as I did when I was little, that there is an entire universe of things that my mother knows that I don't. I still believe that nothing truly bad can ever happen if my mother is around. I know it's not true. But still. It is true.

Look for beauty in everything.

The human condition is imperfection. And that's how it's supposed to be.

Be brave with your life, so others will be brave with theirs.

Success is doing the right thing for who you are.

We build our lives in moments, and even the ones we can't remember become the story of who we are.