“The thing about living with a death sentence for so long is you tend to miss the moment life starts to get better because you're so ready for it to get much, much worse.”

“I remember being on the edge of seventeen, that dangerous time between childhood and young adult when the cement is still wet in your mind. That part of your life where things get stuck and form who you are forever, liked or not. Offhand comments, distant laughter, anything a boy’s fragile ego could mistake for a slight on the kind of man he will one day become. There is never a time in your life when love is so sweet, or pain cuts so deep, or when memory is so undeniably carved in stone.”

“The only thing worse than being whaled on by your drunken old man is waiting for your old man to beat you.”

“I don't remember the moment I knew I was broken...but I do recall when I started to understand that it might be okay. It was the moment I fell in love with the boy with the green eyes.”

“If you live your life scared of what other people think, then you will always be miserable.”

“That's the funny thing about cars and teenage boys. They never mean to hurt you when they crash, they just do.”

“I mean honestly, who just sits around in a house with a bunch of short guys waiting for their prince to come? So your mom is a bitch and wants to kill you because her mirror told her to? Cry me a river why don't you? Your big plan is sitting around cleaning house waiting for the other shoe to drop? And speaking of shoes, everyone has been picked on by mean girls. You do not wait for some old lady to pop in and transmogrify some innocent rodents just so you can sneak in to a dance under false pretenses. And let's say you do sneak in. For the love of all that is holy take your mask off and look the guy in the face and say. “Hi, I'm Cindy from down the street, I have this thing at midnight. Can we do coffee later?” This nonsense with a shoe and searching the entire village for one girl, it's crap.”