I finished your song, she said. Our last song. And I want to play it for you.

You have no idea how much the last few days have meant to me," I began. "Meeting you has been the best thing that's ever happened to me.

That was the dirty secret associated with her past. Not that she'd been abused but that somehow she felt that she deserved it because she'd let it happen. Even now, it shamed her, and there were times when she felt hideously ugly, as though the scars that had been left behind were visible to everyone.

Without suffering, there'd be no compassion.

When I am in the process of conceiving a story, I make sure it can be told with words and pictures. The story has to be creative, original and interesting in both areas. Many stories get rejected because they feel derivative.

I got the sense that he was the kind of person who couldn't hold anger for more than a few minutes, because it just wasn't in him. It could never grow into resentment or bitterness, and I knew then that he was the kind of man who would be married forever. And I decided then and there that I should be the one to marry him.

I'll admit that it's not easy to get an agent, but becoming successful in anything requires perseverance.