By 17, I was submitting to publications and collecting my first rejection slips.

Vampires were always either trying to kill me, or own me. God I hated being popular.

Questions are great, but only if you know the answers. If you ask questions and the answers surprise you, you look silly.

My father had taught me to be nice first, because you can always be mean later, but once you've been mean to someone, they won't believe the nice anymore. So be nice, be nice, until it's time to stop being nice, then destroy them.

I've lost track of the number of people who want to be writers but never actually write anything. Talking about writing, dreaming about writing, can be very fun, but it won't get a book written. You've got to write

Zerbrowski said, "Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try." It took me a second to realize that he had just quoted Star Wars to me. It made me smile, and in that moment I loved him, just for that.

One thing I've learned about vampires--they keep pulling new rabbits out of their cloaks. Big, fanged, carnivorous bunnies that'll eat your eyeballs if you're not paying attention.