But one thing she [Rachel] did believe in was love. She believed that you could smell it, that you could taste it, that it could change the entire course of your life.

It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon.

Sometimes you weren't supposed to share pain. Sometimes it was best just to deal with it alone.

Happiness is a risk. If you’re not a little scared, then you’re not doing it right.

Every life needs a little space. It leaves room for good things to enter it.

Don't let anyone see your vulnerable spots. Once they knew how to hurt you, they would do it again and again.

I needed to stop being what everyone thought I was.

The next morning dawned bright and sweet, like ribbon candy.

She looked like autumn, when leaves turned and fruit ripened.

You can't change where you come from, but you can change where you go from here. Just like a book. If you don't like the ending, you make up a new one.

She was so Southern that she cried tears that came straight from the Mississippi, and she always smelled faintly of cottonwood and peaches.

Make everything an adventure. Otherwise, it will suck.

I had a standing arrangement with God: I'd agree to believe in Him -barely- as long as He let me sleep in on Sundays.

I'd have thought my particular brand of quirkiness, combined with sharp intelligence and a fine voice, would have yielded more. But it hasn't. Yet!

I always believed in God and Christ, but I was in rebellion - trying to make my relationship with God fit into my life instead of making my life fit in with him. I was stubborn.

Nearly every major breakthrough innovation has been preceded by a string of failed or misguided executions.

The adrenaline of a live performance is unlike anything in film or theater. I can see why it's so addictive.

I think some of the most important things we read about other people occurs from being able to read their faces and their eyes and their body and those kinds of things.

Good schools, good jobs, good government. These are not unreasonable demands. But sadly, some of our people have already lost heart and have left Hawaii to look for these things elsewhere.

The construction of life is at present in the power of facts far more than convictions.

The regular hours necessary to be observed by those who follow country business, are perhaps of more consequence than any of the other articles, however important those may be.