I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me.

Women been gittin' pregnant ever since Eve ate that apple.

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.

Every experience shapes your writing, being stuck in a car on a lonely bridge, or dancing at a prom, being the it girl on the beach, all of those things influence your life, they influence how you write, and the topics you choose to write about.

Life offers us tickets to places which we have not knowingly asked for.

Without willing it, I had gone from being ignorant of being ignorant to being aware of being aware. And the worst part of my awareness was that I didn't know what I was aware of. I knew I knew very little, but I was certain that the things I had yet to learn wouldn't be taught to me at George Washington High School.

I wouldn't trade anything for my story now.