Running away wasn’t empowering. An empowered woman would’ve indulged.

Because I barely survived Shane Hall. I barely survived myself. It was a dark time. My home life was traumatic. I was a chaotic, angry kid. Why reminisce?

I want to know without words. I want to fall so violently that I risk breaking into a million pieces. I want to love so desperately it’s indecent. I want it to be wild and fated and forever. A no-choice connection.

Adult social stuff can’t be harder than seventh grade. It’s not hard to make friends. Just be an active listener. If you listen hard enough, you can tell what a person needs from you. And if you give them what they need, you’ve got a friend for life.

I idealize you in fiction because I idealized you in real life,” he continued.

I don’t want these clinical, awkward setups. I don’t feel like doing this twenty more times. I can’t imagine meeting my soulmate through an interview process. I want to know without words. I want fall so violently that I risk breaking into a million pieces. I want to love so desperately it’s indecent. I want it to be wild and fated and forever. A no choice connection.

Acting sober is an art,” he explained. “The trick is to say very little and be very still.

The world was too loud for little-boy Shane. What he didn’t know was that he was training himself to be a deeply empathetic writer – understanding nuanced emotion, spying humanity in unexpected places, seeing past the obvious. He was taking notes for his future self, who would write it all down.

Women didn’t get to be bad boys.

No matter how perilous the journey, it’s never over for true soul mates.