“Fifteen. Sixteen was probably something, but fifteen - fifteen was a place between here and nowhere.”

“Kids are something. All they can see is the beauty in a moment.”

“You're writing, you're coasting, and you're thinking, 'This is the best thing I've ever written, and it's coming so easily, and these characters are so great.' You put it aside for whatever reason, and you open it up a week later and the characters have turned to cardboard and the book has completely fallen apart," she says. "That's the moment of truth for every writer: Can I go on from here and make this book into something? I think it separates the writers from the nonwriters. And I think it's the reason a lot of people have that unfinished manuscript around the house, that albatross.”

“I'm gonna kiss you in each room," he said. "Then it's dinnertime.""How many rooms to this place?" Ellie asked, her eyes wide.Miah shrugged. "I'm not counting.”

“Seems like every time life starts straightening itself out, something's gotta go and happen.”

“Maybe this was our last summer as best friends. I feel like something's going to change now and I'm not going to be able to change it back.—Margaret”

“Lately, I'd been feeling like I was standing outside watching everything and everybody. Wishing I could take the part of me that was over there and the part of me that was over here and push them together—make myself into one whole person like everybody else.”