"

We make such messes in this life, both accidently and on purpose. But wiping the surface clean doesn't really make anything any neater. It just masks ...more

"

Nah," I said. "But if it does, just tell him I said to get back on the bike.""What?""He'll understand.

"

Because you have to just go with the flow. Your life is not your own, with people coming in and out all the time. You get mellow because you have to.

"

After all, it's all kinds of things that make up a life, right? The big, like falling in love and spending time with your family, and the little....li...more

"

I didn't pretend to know Eli at all, but even so, I'd noticed that his manner was slightly hard to read. It was something in the way he talked that ma...more

"

Maybe if I'd agreed to do the debutante thing like she wanted. Or taken up pageants instead of riding jump bikes with a bunch of grungy boys. I'd alwa...more

"

It seemed like this day could go in so many directions, like a spiderweb shooting out toward endless possibilities. Whenever you made a choice, especi...more

"

It was so risky and so scary, and yet at the same time, so beautiful. Maybe the truth was, it shouldn't be easy to be amazing. Then everything would b...more

"

Life shouldn't be about the either/or. We're capable of more than that, you know?

"

Maybe the truth was, it shouldn't be so easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and struggle with before earning t...more

"

Oh darling, don't be bitter. It's the first instinct of the weak.

"

It didn't make you noble to step away from something that wasn't working, even if you thought you were the reason for the malfunction. Especially then...more

"

I wondered if emotions were like menstrual cycles, if you get enough women together. Give it time, and everyone was crying.

"

It's not always easy being her daughter.' I think,' she said, 'sometimes it's hard no matter whose daughter you are.

"

Maybe we were all destined to just keep doing the same stupid things, over and over again, never really learning a single thing.