Writing a novel is a lot like directing a movie because you are creating a world and a tone, you are creating a large canvas and all the details.

Part of the reason I wrote the book was I wanted to understand for myself why such good people let themselves get treated so badly.

please believe that things are good with me, and even when they're not, they will be soon enough. And i will always believe the same about you.

The fact that one of these ladies was my mom made me particularly sad because my mom is beautiful. And she’s always on a diet. Sometimes, my dad calls her beautiful, but she cannot hear him.

The perfect song on the perfect drive to make you feel infinite.

And when she started becoming a “young lady,” and no one was allowed to look at her because she thought she was fat. And how she really wasn’t fat. And how she was actually very pretty. And how different her face looked when she realized boys thought she was pretty. And how different her face looked the first time she really liked a boy who was not on a poster on her wall. And how her face looked when she realized she was in love with that boy. I wondered how her face would look when she came out from behind those doors.

She said that by introducing me to all these great things, Mary Elizabeth gained a “superior position” that she wouldn’t need if she was confident about herself. She also said that people who try to control situations all the time are afraid that if they don’t, nothing will work out the way they want.