“Maybe a first love exists to remind you to be brave in the moment, to stand up for your feelings, instead of shrinking back in the face of potential loneliness.”

I have been a joy to live with all spring: Upbeat, warm and tender, uncomplicated, and loving.

It’s service. And I took that ethic and applied it to my writing craft.

And who encouraged you to grow a good heart. When that layer goes, whatever is left of your childhood goes with her.

Sometimes we get our hearts broken, only to have the right person come along to mend them.

It doesn’t. What matters is what you make. Whether it’s a cake for bingo night or a costume for a saint or a wall of water-whatever you pour into this life is what makes you rich.

If there is one thing I hope my books do always and forever, its that they honor working people.

Same is true of liking a boy. If you cut off the thoughts, if you stop pinning, you’re free to find a boy who is attainable.

I even love the smell of books.

This should tell you everything you need to know about guys.

But I learned that art can be found in all of life, even in pain.

So for them 15 years is a blink of an eye. I am nothing but grateful.

I have candles going, and small objects that remind me of what I am working on, or bring me into the world of the character.

When I see it lumbering down the mountain road like a tank . . . I flag it down like an old friend. I’ve waited on this corner every Friday since I can remember.

I am no trouble at all. You could press me into dough and make sugar cookies out of me, I’ve been so sweet.

Regardless of whether they loved us back or treated us fairly or understood our shortcomings.

To fail and succeed and flourish and fly.

Got my Allman Brothers cassettes stacked up on the dash, got some Jack back in the trunk and a tank full of gas.

I had forgotten how much light there is in the world, till you gave it back to me.

Kill them, turn back time to the moment before I had talked so that I could have another chance to save myself.

I frowned at the list. “So… I’ll go back and tell the Traynors that I’m going to get their suicidal quadriplegic son drunk, spend their money on strippers and lap dancers, and then trundle him off to the Disability Olympics-

Right now, i had everything i could ask for. It wasn’t a long list, but it was a very satisfying one, starting with the love of my life back in my arms.

Maybe it’s time we got back to the basics of love.

Religion has really spawned some monsters. It always has, historically. Go all the way back to the Inquisition, you know, the Crusades, the Jehad and so on.

The truth is… you are hurting me. Not on purpose, I know that. But I love you and every second that you don´t love me back…it hurts.