Quotes from Cynthia Leitich Smith

Men suck. - Not all men. Just the really good ones.

Children and teens take in stories to the deepest imaginable level. What we put on the page can change the people they'll become and the course of their lives.

I find getting the first draft down to be the biggest challenge. Every word, every punctuation mark, every plot point is a decision. It's much more fun to play with something that already exists.

For me, it's been a treat to interact with authors who were publishing when I was a young reader. Judy Blume once gave me a pep talk at a writing conference. I had a short story featured in the same anthology as Beverly Cleary. Magic.

My stories include realistic fiction and fantasy.

Love isn't only passion and joy. It's also sacrifice.

In the end, I'd loved him enough to let go. From afar, I would love him forever.

I've always been fond of Tim Drake/Robin. I suppose it's the YA writer in me. I enjoy the intensity of young, smart heroes. I'd love to write him in either graphic or prose form.

I'm fond of my werecats, if only because I have four real-world felines staring at me as I type.

Big picture, it's amazing to create characters and see them brought to life in the art. And to love that art. But I especially enjoy writing a character with heightened powers that aren't especially useful to him.

It was funny, though, the things you didn't learn about people until after they died.

But adulthood," continued the barely twentysomething, "doesn't give you power over what matters most. It doesn't protect you from pain, loss, fate. That's part of being human.

I may be heaven-sent, but I'm not perfect.

Vampires don't live at all," she points out, "neither do we." She has me there. "Fine, I'll go. But when Kurt leads his minions in a march around the cemetary with our heads on sticks, don't say I didn't warn you.

Forget what you might have heard. There are no separate corps of angels for agnostics, atheists, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Mormons, Buddhists, Unitarians, Hindus, Druids, Shintoists, Wiccans, and so on. To put a spin on the old saying, it's okay if you don't believe in angels. We believe in you.

Men suck. - Not all men. Just the really good ones.

Besides, humans aren't prey. They are our natural enemies. They are to be avoided.

In the end, I'd loved him enough to let go. From afar, I would love him forever.

That's when it happens. Maybe it was my argument. Maybe it was my scary zeal. Whatever the reason, as soon as Megan whistles, the crowd is on its feet. They're blowing bubbles. They're raising their lighters high. They're cheering through their fangs... For Dawn Summers, for themselves and each other, for every sibling who got tossed into a situation beyond her control. For me. And for my sister, who whistles again... Once more with feeling.

Miranda: You say you were my guardian angel. Does that mean you watched me all the time? Like when I got my period or doctored a zit or took a shower or- Zachary: I'm an angel, not a Peeping Tom.

Bridget adds, "Did Anyone bring a weapon?" "Confiscated," Zach admits for both of us. Vesper holds up her metal fingernail file. "They didn't take this." We're dealing with the forces of evil," I point out. "Not the TSA.

Straightening, I asked, "What do you believe in?" "Old love songs, best friends, the collected works of J.R.R.Tolkien, crispy pork egg rolls with just the right amount of grease, the Big Boss and eternity." "The Big Boss?" Zachary pointed up, as if to heaven. "Pious,"I teased.

Turned out there was some big, bad Wolf in my good boy after all.

I may be heaven-sent, bit I'm not perfect