They were still all beautiful and there was still enchantment and wonder, but she had crossed a line and now the fairy tale was green with corruption and evil.

The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting.

We'll just have to get along. That's what people do, you know? They just get along. And try to help each other.

Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.

It was really amazing the number of hard hits from which a mind could recover.

One night when my longing for her was like a fire burning out of control in my heart and my head, I wrote her a letter that just seemed to go on and on. I poured out my whole heart in it, never looking back to see what I'd said because I was afraid cowardice would make me stop. I didn't stop, and when a voice in my head clamored that it would be madness to mail such a letter, that I would be giving her my naked heart to hold in her hand, I ignored it with a child's breathless disregard of the consequences.

I started to submit when I was twelve, and obviously at that time they weren't good enough, and I suppose in my heart of hearts I knew it. But you have to start sooner or later, you have to dig in.