Quotes

Death is the one - the one thing we don't have many answers for. We understand how people die, but we don't know what comes next, and that's something that's always fascinated and disturbed me and frustrated me.

I was very lucky to befriend many authors before even signing with an agent, and they were all so supportive of me when I told them I was in the middle of my first book.

I haven't written adult fiction, but I do not sugarcoat grief - or what I expect grief to be.

I'm building this reputation as YA heartbreaker, I know. Some people like 'happily ever after,' but I don't think that's me.

My first book was on the grittier side of life. A week before being published, I realized all of my main characters come from single households. That was something that, when I lived in South Bronx, that's what it was like.

I don't think I'm capable of giving a character every possible victory, no matter how much I love them, without feeling as if their ending isn't genuine to their actual trials.

When you're overthinking a thought like the way I do, I can get completely pulled away from something I'm in the middle of because my thought channel just won't help me get from point A to point B without any difficulty.

Having a book published whenever is a huge honor.

The Strand prides itself for its '18 miles of books,' and they are not kidding - that store goes on for da-a-a-a-ys. There are carts outside with dollar books, all sorts of fun merchandise inside, and an extensive selection of reduced priced books. If you're looking to buy a $30 hardcover for $20, The Strand is your new best friend.

I had definitely missed the literary development game with Paper Lantern Lit, and writing exclusively wasn't giving me complete fulfillment.

I'm always writing from some difficult place and seeing how the character survives... or doesn't.

There are happy stories out there, but I think some of them may raise false expectations for teens.

I'm definitely of the 'Harry Potter'-transfigured-me-into-a-reader-and-writer generation. And that's really all I read throughout my teen years, because I really devoted all my time to writing and reading friends' fan-fiction.

As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce.

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

Labour was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased.

On the road from the City of Skepticism, I had to pass through the Valley of Ambiguity.

The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.

All money is a matter of belief.

To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.

What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?

No complaint... is more common than that of a scarcity of money.