You own a Tic Tac. Gum is just borrowed. - Esther

So he didn't have to prove how he felt about me. Like so much else, I should just know.

Usually when I finish the draft of a book, I'm sure I'll never write another one. I'm just that tired and sick of myself. But then another idea starts percolating. It usually begins with the narrator's name, then some idea that intrigues me about her life or situation. I try to ignore it as long as I can, because I know when I start writing, I'll be right back into it, every single day. But eventually, I just have to. It's a compulsion!

You can't just turn your heart off like a faucet; you have to go to the source and dry it out, drop by drop.

So maybe it wasn't the fairy tale. But those stories weren't real anyway. Mine were.

You know, I think I knew you for about three weeks before I ever really saw you smile. And then one day, Morgan said something and you laughed, and I remember thinking it was really cool because it meant something. You're not the kind of person who smiles for nothing, Colie. I have to earn every one.

Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together.