“Folks want to glow, to leave their worries and dead skin behind.”

“I had been on a whole lot of folks' prayer lists and God had known for years my address was still 111 Unlucky-in-LOve-Avenue.”

“happiness aint got no Ph.D. or no certain amount of zeroes behind it!”

“It goes without saying that your friends are usually the first to discuss your personal business behind your back.”

“Don't worry about how pretty (the story) sounds, how lilting it is, and the imagery, and the metaphor, all that. Most readers don't care. It's the people in your book that matter.”

“You've been killing me inside and I don't want to die like this.”

“I want to push the fast-forward button until I get back to happy.”