Ugh! Young girls, they should laugh. Life's bad enough when you're grown, you might as well laugh when you're young.

The 1st day, I stood in the kitchen leaning against the counter watching Annie feed the cats, and I knew I wanted to do that forever.

Liza-don't let it make any difference. It won't, will it? With us, I mean." "Of course it won't," I told her. But I was wrong. Six months of not writing-that's a difference. And so I lied to Annie. On top of everything else, I lied to Annie, too.

It's Annie and me they're all sitting around here like cardboard people judging; It's Annie and me. And what we did that they think is wrong, when you pare it all down, was fall in love.

And Annie showed me how ailanthus trees grow under subway and sewer gratings, stretching toward the sun, making shelter in the summer, she said, laughing, for the small dragons that live under the streets.

Ugh! Young girls, they should laugh. Life's bad enough when you're grown, you might as well laugh when you're young.

Don't punish yourselves for people's ignorant reactions to what we all are. Don't let ignorance win. Let love.