It took me a long time to realize this: We get to choose what defines us.

You can't change where you come from, but you can change where you go from here. Just like a book. If you don't like the ending, you make up a new one.

My writing process is very organic. I start with an idea. I have the general story arc and the cast. But then I sit down to write, and things change.

Love always hurts. That’s one thing I know you know. But it’s worth it. That’s what you don’t know. Yet.

When you have to do something, you have to do it. Putting it off only makes it worse. Believe me, I know.

Those silly girls had no idea what they were really celebrating. They had no idea what it took to bring Agatha and her friends together seventy-five years ago. The Women's Society Club had been about supporting one another, about banding together to protect one another because no one else would. But it had turned into an ugly beast, a means by which rich ladies would congratulate themselves by giving money to the poor. And Agatha had let it happen. All her life, it seemed, she was making up for things she let happen.

She knew what it felt like to stand in front of someone and ask them to love you, to try to pull them to you by the sheer force of your desire, a force so strong it felt as though you were going to die from it.