I have always had a sense that we are all pretty much alone in life, particularly in adolescence.

...pain reaches a certain point and does not get worse but remains in all its intensity and you can survive it.

They don't actually want you to do your own thing, not unless it's their thing too.

You bring up your children to be self-reliant and independent and they double-cross you and become self-reliant and independent.

I simply write with an intelligent reader in mind. I don't think about how old they are.

Archie became absolutely still, afraid that the rapid beating of his heart might betray his sudden knowledge, the proof of what he'd always suspected, not only of Brother Leon but most grownups, most adults: they were vulnerable, running scared, open to invasion.

And he did see--that life was rotten, that there were no heroes, really, and that you couldn't trust anybody, not even yourself.