I'm named after Jane Austen's Emma, and I've always been able to relate to her. She's strong, confident but quite tactless.

The great thing about a short story is that it doesn't have to trawl through someone's whole life; it can come in glancingly from the side.

The world is always changing brightness and hotness and soundness, I never know how it's going to be the next minute.

Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.

I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened.

Ma's still nodding. "You're the one who matters, though. Just you." I shake my head till it's wobbling because there's no just me.

It’s called mind over matter. If we don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” When a bit of me hurts, I always mind.

Books are the air I breathe, so I don't notice the seasons.

If I was made of cake I'd eat myself before somebody else could.

I remember manners, that's when people are scared to make other persons mad.

When I tell her what I’m thinking and she tells me what she’s thinking, our each ideas jumping into the other’s head, like coulouring blue crayon on top of yellow that makes green.

She wore his love like a loaded gun.

Anxiety is nothing more than prolonged fear. It comes with prolonged chemical release that does incalculable damage to your neurons over time.

The worst thing about that kind of prejudice... is that while you feel hurt and angry and all the rest of it, it feeds you self-doubt. You start thinking, perhaps I am not good enough.

Work is the means of living, but it is not living.

Christ, who came meek and mild to save us from pain and suffering, was the One who talked more about hell than any other person in Scripture.

It's Sanjit. It's a Hindu name. It means 'invincible.'" "That's great," Lana said. "Invincible. I can't be vinced." "That's not even a word," Lana said. "Go ahead: try to vince me," Sanjit said.

Angel looks down at him and says, “Oh, pretty boy, Can't you show me nothing but surrender?

I can't regret until the end. And I won't regret then, either.

It's OK to assert yourself. Obviously, as a woman, I do experience the consequence of asserting yourself - you're not supposed to assert yourself.

The one who knows himself isn't deceived by either praise or criticism.