“It seems to me that after someone sweeps across your life like a red-hot flame, peeling back the shutters that sat over your heart and your mind and setting free your sweetest dreams or your worst nightmares, after things cool down you've got two choices. You can either slip back into your old self, your old life, tucking those things you were too scared to look at back into hiding, or you can keep those parts of yourself out until you get so used to them that they don't scare you anymore and they just become a part of who you are.”

“See them little scales there, how they're closed up tight like window shutters? Underneath 'em are the seeds - flat little things, flimsy as a baby's figernails - with a point at one end. If a fire comes along, the heat is gonna cause those scales to peel back and drop their seeds, while the ground is still scorching hot. Then that tiny seed is gonna burrow in and take root." I was nine years old the summer Freeda and Winnalee Malone rushed across our lives like red-hot flames, peeling back the shutters that sat over our hearts and our minds, setting free our sweetest dreams and our worst nightmares.”

“Bright Idea #91: When the weather's bad and your lights go out, have a pajama party. Eat till you feel sick, hula-hoop, paint your faces. Catch fireflies, and dance naked in the rain. If you do, then your bare butt will light up like a firefly after it's been let out of a jar.”

“After you hit puberty, it's just one thing after the other until the day you die. You have some good years in your twenties, after you've stopped embarrassing yourself constantly and before your back goes out and your knees start to creak. And those are just the physical things. They say as you get older, your essential nature is revealed. Sort of like a balsamic reduction of the soul.”

“To gain your heart's desire you have to lose some part of your old life, your old self. To do that you have to have courage; without it, you can't make the leap. And if you don't make the leap you have only three choices: You can hate yourself for not taking the chance, you can hate the person from whom you've sacrificed your happiness, or you can hate the one who offered you happiness, and blame them for your lack of courage, convince yourself it wasn't real.”

“You just want to keep me on this hook, right? So I'll keep chasing after you and you can feel good about yourself. As soon as I start to get over you, you just reel me back in. You're so screwed up in the head. But I'm telling you, this is it. You don't get to have me anymore. Not as your friend or your admirer or anything. I'm through.”

“26 Thought-Provoking Questions:1. if you could own any single object that you don't have now, what would it be?2. if you could have one superpower, what would it be?3. if you could meet anyone in history, who would you choose and what would you ask them?4. if you could add one person to your family, who would it be?5. if you could be best friends with anyone in the world, who would you pick?6. if you could change anything about your face, what would it be7. if you could change anything about your parents, what would it be?8. if you could fast-forward your life, how old would you want to be and why?9. what is the one object you own that matters more to you than anything else?10. what is the one thing in the world that you are most afraid of?11. if you could go to school in a foreign country, which one would you pick?12. if you had the power to drop any course from your curriculum, what would it be?13. if you caught your best friend stealing from you, what would you do?14. if you had a chance to spend a million dollars on anything but yourself, how would you spend it?15. if you could look like anyone you wanted, who would that be?16. if you were a member of the opposite sex, who would you want to look like?17. if you could change your first name, what name would you chose?18. what's the best thing about being a teen?19. what's the worst?20. if someone you like asked you out on a date, but your best friend had a crush on this person, what would you do?21. what is the worst day of the week?22. if you had to change places with one of your friends, who would you chose?23. if you could be any sports hero, who would you like to be?24. what's the one thing you've done in your life that you wish you could do over differently?25. what would you do if you found a dollar in the street? what if you found $100? $10,000?26. if you had a chance to star in any movie, who would you want as a costar?”