Anyone who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city..

Because nobody but a reader ever became a writer..

We don't write what we know. We write what we wonder about..

This is how you hold onto your family. You hold them with open hands so they are free to find futures of their own. It's just that simple..

I read because one of these days I'm going to get out of this town, and I'm going to go everywhere and meet everybody, and I want to be ready.

...they'd just tell you to turn the other cheek, wouldn't they?...Trouble is, Mrs. Dowdel observed, after you've turned the other cheek four times, y….

Writing is communication, not self-expression. Nobody in this world wants to read your diary except your mother..

The only way you can write is by the light of the bridges burning behind you..