Alex Flinn quotes:

This isn't a fairy tale. It's New York City.

I wrote poetry, journals, and, especially, plays for the neighborhood kids to perform. I had an ordinary, happy childhood. Nothing much was going on, but I had fun.

Sometimes, unexpected things can happen.

I was a lawyer for about ten years. The law teaches one to see things from all different angles.

Since I've written many of my books from a less-than-sympathetic viewpoint, I think that being able to see things from all sides is a useful talent.

I write contemporary fiction, and that is what my readers want to read.

Every girl pretends she is a princess at one point, no matter how little her life is like that.

those who do not know how to see the precious things in life will never be happy.

Any experience that isn't fun is probably something I will at least use in my writing someday.

Anyone else feel like that? Like your life's a big act. Like you're trying to be a man when you're just a scared kid, trying to keep under control when you really want to scream, cry, or maybe hit someone. Ever feel like you're breathing underwater and you have to stop because you're gulping in too much fluid.

Maybe we judge people too much by their looks because it's easier than seeing what's really important.

Good to know: Doctors can't cure you of being a beast.

What happened to romance? Sappy, soppy longhand love letters.

Everyone can use a little beauty.

Seem like a lot of people wear shoes they can't walk in.

Although my other ambition was to be a musical theater star (and I would attend college on a voice scholarship), writing was never far from my mind.

Each of my books took roughly one and a half years to write. Some may have taken a shorter time to write the draft and a longer time to revise, while others were the opposite.

I was painfully shy, and I had tremendous difficulty making friends. So, lacking friends, I watched other people. Watching is something all writers must do, and it was in junior high that I learned to do it.

It's easier to fake it. When you fake it for sixteen years, it becomes part of you, something you don't think about.

Don't grab people. Would you like it if I grabbed you? If you would like to offer assistance, ask if the person needs it.

True love would look a second time. True love would not be thwarted. True love would not accept no for an answer. He would search the world and certainly look again and again in every cottage in Euphrasia until he finds you.

I am a princess. I do not follow fashions--I make them.

I love you, I thought. But I didn't say it. It was not that I feared she would laugh in my face. She was far too kind for that. My fear was a greater one - that she won't say it back.

You shouldn't miss someone who don't miss you, right?

People make such a big deal about looks, but after a while, when you know someone, you don't even notice anymore...

In stories like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, they always say the heroine is 'as good as she is beautiful.' I wondered if people just wanted that to be true, wanted the beautiful to be good. I wondered if they wanted the ugly to be bad because then they wouldn't have to feel bad for them.

A boy admiring a pretty girl. A rare thing to be certain. But love-true love-is something else.

Maybe you actually do need to face obstacles with someone to know that they're the one you'd sacrifice for.

A shoe that fits one person pinches another.

The magic is over, but its effects will live forever.

Something with inner beauty will live forever, like the scent of a rose.

A beautiful thing is precious no matter the price

That's what true love should be like-the person should be part of your soul and you should know what they're feeling all the time.

You are right. I have no idea, and it is none of my business, and I was taught to obey my parents. But sometimes it is just impossible to obey blindly. Sometimes a child must strike out on her own. A child cannot be a child forever, whether that means not touching a spindle or . . . or . . .

It would be so great to have someone my own age to talk to, even if it was just about books.

I enjoy people who aren't afraid to say what they mean. It makes life so much easier!

I have a great deal of empathy for anyone who's having a hard time. I believe this ability to see another's viewpoint has served me well as a writer.