Different people were good at different things, Lena mused. Lena was good at writing thank-you notes, for instance, and Effie was good at being happy. Ann Brashares More Quotes by Ann Brashares More Quotes From Ann Brashares Carmen hated the 'life is too short" rationalization. She thought it was one of the lamer excuses in the history of excuse-making. Whenever you did something because "life is too short not to," you could be sure life would be just long enough to punish you for it. Ann Brashares life-is-too-short would-be long You could feel things or you could find a way to shut down. But once you were feeling things, you couldn’t decide exactly what to feel. That was the trouble with letting them in at all. They made a mess of the place. Ann Brashares trouble feelings way The weather turned. Her skin seemed to grow a million extra pores, and all of them opened to take in the warmth and tenderness of the air. The sun on her face made her want to cry. Into all those millions of open pores came the sunshine, and other feelings as well. In and out. She was porous. Ann Brashares sunshine air weather Someday when you're twenty, maybe, I'll see you again. You'll be this hot soccer star at some great school, with a million guys more interesting than I am chasing you down. And you know what? I'll see you and I'll pray you want me still. Ann Brashares stars soccer school She went around with a broken heart, and she wasn't sure who'd broken it. She thought it was herself, mostly. Ann Brashares broken-heart broken heart Why does he have to be my boyfriend? Are you inferior if you don't have a boyfriend? Why does everybody have to be in love with somebody? Ann Brashares inferiors my-boyfriend doe I was supposed to write a romantic comedy, but my characters broke up. Ann Brashares comedy writing character Lena knew she had spent too much of her life in a state of passive dread, just waiting for something bad to happen. In a life like that, relief was as close as you got to happiness. Ann Brashares relief too-much waiting She wanted him to notice her so much. Ann Brashares wanted Please believe him. Keep your heart open to him. He can make you happy. He has always loved you, and you once loved him with all your heart. Ann Brashares make-you-happy heart believe Maybe happiness was just a matter of the little upticks- the traffic signal that said "Walk" the second you go there- and downticks- the itch tag at the back of your collar- that happened to every person in the course of the day. Maybe everybody had the same allotted measure of happiness within each day. Ann Brashares each-day littles moving Particularly beautiful people were like particularly funny-looking people, though. Once you know them you mostly forgot about it. Ann Brashares beautiful-people beautiful people As much as I'm drawn to writing about teenage girls, I like the idea of having the freedom to branch out and write about different ages, for different ages. Ann Brashares teenage girl writing As a writer, you live in such isolation. It's hard to imagine your book has a life beyond you. Ann Brashares isolation imagine book Developing characters is a strange thing. In the beginning they are abstract and I wonder how to move on from there. Ann Brashares strange character moving I agree that a love of reading is a great gift for a parent to pass on to his or her child. Ann Brashares parent reading children It's so much easier to have no expectations than to have big ones. Ann Brashares easier bigs expectations My household is, in a nice way, very busy. Ann Brashares nice busy way The distinction has blurred between young adult and adult books. Some of the teen books have become more sophisticated. Ann Brashares sophisticated adults book To write a story, I think you really have to open yourself up to the world. Ann Brashares stories writing thinking
