One way to tell if you're really comfortable with a person is if you can be quiet together sometimes and not feel awkward. If you don't feel obligated to say something brilliant or funny or surprising or cool. You can just be together. You can just be.

Writing, for me, is the best occupation I can think of, and there is nothing in the world I would rather do.

Once I have the idea for a story. I start collecting all kinds of helpful information and storing it in three-ring notebooks. For example, I may see a picture of a man in a magazine and say, 'That's exactly what the father in my book looks like!'...I save everything that will help--maps, articles, hand-jotted notes, bits of dialogue from conversations that I overhear.

There were so many of these moments that could never be captured accurately, even in the camcorder, only in the heart.

When you’ve found the right one - when you see him, when you’re with him - you’ll feel like you’re coming home.

Happiness is wanting what you have.

We all have our own battles to fight, and sometimes we have to go it alone. I'm stronger than you think, you'd be surprised.