“I thought how lovely and how strange a river is.”

He thought: How difficult it is to explain yourself to yourself. Sometimes there only is, and no knowing.

The thing is, when love is real, whether it’s ebbing or flowing, it’s always there, it never goes away. And that’s the only proof you can have that it is real, and not just a crush or an infatuation or a passing fancy

As someone who knows her mind and who I envy for that. As someone who is strong in herself without seeming to need anyone else to help her. As someone who makes me thinks and unsettles me in a way that makes me feel more alive.

I will not compromise on language or content. At 15, people can handle the same language as me, they’re just as complicated as me and are very interested in thinking about important questions for the first time.

Readers are made by readers – it is so obvious it is almost banal to say it.

Is it better to go with the flow or let the flow go?

Never give it all. You can never be yourself otherwise.

The pleasure of being bored ismooning about and doing nothing.

The books, the authors who matter the most are those who speak to me and speak for me all those things about life I most need to hear as the confession of myself

And the price for being a homo-hater should be as high as anyone can pay.

The most memorable people in life will be the friends who loved you when you weren’t very lovable.

Self pity is a disease which does not kill but corrodes.

History dies without the present. There is no future without the path made to it by the past.

If you’re rational and logical, they argue their case rationally and logically. If you’re loyal and faithful, they turn those against you.

We resent being faced with facts we’d prefer to ignore as much as being wrongly accused of doing something we haven’t.

Life is not like a novel, but a novel can be like life. The best ones always are.

For me, a lovely day is any day I wake up.

I’m not an overnight success. I’ve been doing it for 12 years. It’s been lovely and varied so far.

I’m very excited about all the offers and interest and support pouring in through crowd-funding, and about having a lovely gap coming up when I’ll finally be able to sit down with books and scripts and talk to my partners about how we take the company forward.

I do get stopped on the street, although rarely. And they always have something lovely to say.

I’d never even been to Wrigley Field. I never even enjoyed baseball that much, but I loved being there, the crowd was lovely, and they all sang with me!

I’d love to win a Grammy! Not ambitious or anything. And just having a really lovely bunch of kids and a happy family life, would be good for me.

It’s unresolved conflict in my life that I have a lovely family and a risky job.

Oh, I wish I lived in a caravan!’ said Jimmy longingly. ‘How lovely it must be to live in a house that has wheels and can go away down the lanes and through the towns, and stand still in fields at night!