Martin Wilson's What They Always Tell Us hears the voices of the young as they struggle toward adulthood.

We write by the light of every story we have ever read.

Writing is communication, not self-expression. Nobody in this world wants to read your diary except your mother.

Fame is a funny thing, like a secret, both are hard to keep.

...they'd just tell you to turn the other cheek, wouldn't they?...Trouble is, Mrs. Dowdel observed, after you've turned the other cheek four times, you run out of cheeks.

If you cannot find yourself on the page very early in life, you will go looking for yourself in all the wrong places.

I read because one of these days I'm going to get out of this town, and I'm going to go everywhere and meet everybody, and I want to be ready