You can learn to change the world or go on being changed by it.
Just because there's tarnish on the copper, doesn't mean there's not a shine beneath.
Kindness comes with no price.
For me writing is a long, hard, painful process, but it is addictive, a pleasure that I seek out actively. My advice to young writers is this: Read a lot. Read to find out what past writers have done. Then write about what you know. Write about your school, your class, about your teachers, your family. That's what I did. Each writer must find his or her own kind of voice. Finally, you have to keep on writing.
I only knew that there was a certain rightness in life--the feeling you got when you did something the way you knew you should.
Sometimes it's easier to be as bad as they expect you to be.
