“It is amazing what a pen and paper can create when one adds just a little imagination.”

“Life is a lot like surfing… When you get caught in the impact zone, you’ve got to just get back up. Because you never know what may be over the next wave.”

“Remind me again why I put up with you?" ''Cause you sold me your soul for five bucks, and now you must submit to my will?' I still had the sheet of paper, written in his untidy fifth-grade scrawl. Gideon David Belmonte. One soul.”

“Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That's what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.”

“I won't cry. When the guilt is this heavy, you can't. It just settles and stays with you, and it's cold.”

“Oh, high school and everything. The first day I met you, you were almost crying because those guys were teasing you, and it was just because they thought you were cute. You have attention, that's a given. But I like it, okay? I like to get some attention at school and when we go out. I'm kind of jealous of you, Parker.”

“Being boss is just the first person willing to do something.”