“This was real life, not a book. And inreal life, people met, nothing happened, and you wenthome. Or they went o� to Egypt and told you that theyweren’t a commitment kind of guy after six years. Thatwas real life. Not a guy like Marc. Or the marquis.”

“So I knew this wasn't going to be one of those things where I liked a guy and then this awful girl liked him, and I got the guy because I was so wholesome and right and good. This was real life. In real life, I had to get a serious grip.”

“His every syllable flirted. Honestly, he kind of turned me on. I didn't even know that guys could turn me on-not, like, in real life”

“The thing about real life is, when you do something stupid, it normally costs you. In books the heroes can make as many mistakes as they like. It doesn't matter what they do, because everything works out in the end. They'll beat the bad guys and put things right and everything ends up cool.In real life, vacuum cleaners kill spiders. If you cross a busy road without looking, you get whacked by a car. If you fall from a tree, you break some bones. Real life's nasty. It's cruel. It doesn't care about heroes and happy endings and the way things should be. In real life, bad things happen. People die. Fights are lost. Evil often wins. I just wanted to make that clear before I begun.”

“The real reason for not committing suicide is because you always know how swell life gets again after the hell is over.”

“How sad that I felt more of a connection to a fictional character than to a guy in real life.”