“Over the last few years, my comfort level with how I look has improved. My age has helped. You get used to yourself and accept yourself.”

“I'm not opposed to aging - even though society is kinder on men than women when it comes to getting old. How can I look at aging as the enemy? It happens whether I like it or not and no one is set apart from growing old; it comes to us all. Youth passes from everyone, so why deny it? I'm proud of my age. I'm proud that I've survived this planet for as long as I have, and should I end up withered, wrinkled and with a lifetime of great wisdom, I'll trade the few years of youth for the sophistication of a great mind...for however long it lasts.”

“How wonderful, I thought every time I watched it: to stand next to the people who knew you best and hide yourself completely. To be simultaneously secret and exposed, to be concealed in plain sight, to keep yourself safe and to deliberately risk that safety.”

“I close my eyes and suddenly remember something Nina had told me the night before my first day of middle school: If you're going somewhere where you feel like you might not belong, the only person you need to work to convince is yourself. Everyone else is easy.”

“Listen to what you tell yourself about your life situation. If you find it's pessimistic or negative, ask yourself, "What's another way of thinking about this?" or "What do I want to create in my life?”

“For years after my father left us for Belladonna, I had looked for him... the last time someone had seen them, they were living on a duck's back.”

“I can see that you don’t believe me. Maybe it was the cookie? Well, you refused to taste my cookies last night and honestly, I was going to eat the other cookie, but you looked so tired and sad sitting there, I figured you needed the cookie more than I did.”