I looked at myself in that window, oblivious to all the people around me and I stared and smiled that particular smile. You know that smile that seems to knock you and tell you how pathetic you are? That's the smile I was smiling.

The question is what color will everything be at that moment when I come for you? What will the sky be saying?

She leaned down and looked at his lifeless face and Leisel kissed her best friend, Rudy Steiner, soft and true on his lips. He tasted dusty and sweet. He tasted like regret in the shadows of trees and in the glow of the anarchist's suit collection. She kissed him long and soft, and when she pulled herself away, she touched his mouth with her fingers...She did not say goodbye. She was incapable, and after a few more minutes at his side, she was able to tear herself from the ground. It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on.

You can do anything when it's not real. When it is real, nothing breaks your fall. Nothing gets between you and the ground.

When we move apart, she looks at me again, till a small tear lifts itself up in her eye. It trips out to find a wrinkle and follows it down.

I'm not one of these 'the characters write themselves; the story just fell out of me' kind of writers. Wish it was like that.

Failure has been my best friend as a writer. It tests you, to see if you have what it takes to see it through.