Being in love is one of the most powerful experiences anyone can have. I think that's why we have crushes when we're younger. Maybe it's how we get ready for real love.

The most important advice I can offer is that writing is a craft that you can learn by practicing. If you keep writing, you will improve.

Many writers are afraid of writing something bad, so they dont try or give up when their efforts dont lead to a masterpiece right away. If you work at it, you will improve.

In quiet moments, I love to read.

That was how it always was with Colleen: No matter how sad she felt, there was always this little bit of hope - like a speck of glitter caught in your eyelash - that never went away, no matter what.

Colleen had this idea -- a faded, crumpled, smudged idea -- that being nice counted for something.

The truth can be known or realized but cannot be change or modify.

In real life, I'm pretty much an eternal optimist.

Conducting, I tried it once off the cuff, and quickly realized there were subtle aspects that I was missing. There is a lot more to it that I was able to grasp simply by watching conductors.

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. [Omnes relinquite spes, o vos intrantes]

We all do grow as humans.

For every runner who tours the world running marathons, there are thousands who run to hear leaves and listen to rain and look to the day when it all is suddenly as easy as a bird in flight.

I didn't want it to have any technical virtuosity; I wanted it to just be really clear how it was made. For my work in general, it's always really clear how it is made.

The world is run by monsters and you have to deal with them. Some of them run countries, some of them run banks, some of them run news corporations.

I've not sat with my agent going: 'Where is the next hopeless girl I can play?' They just come along.

The Internet is part of this ongoing, species-long project we've been working on since we climbed down out of the trees in the savanna. We've been working on it without really knowing it.