You don't realize how strong you are until you have to help someone else stand up.
Taylor Jenkins Reid
I went to Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in Massachusetts and Emerson College in Boston.
When I wrote my first book, I was too scared to find out how people got books published. I was convinced that you needed some sort of magical potion that I didn't have.
I am endlessly inspired by both the tenderness that can exist between two people and the excitement of falling in love. I'm very fortunate that I've been able to explore that in novels, a television show, some early development film projects, and essays about my own life.
Try everything with an open heart, looking to fall in love.
When I was a kid, all I ever wanted was to be famous.
I worked in feature film casting right out of college and spent a lot of time working with actors, directors, and producers.
I was obsessed with Hollywood from the time I was a kid. I always knew I wanted to live in Los Angeles.
When my husband and I first got married, I was so shocked at my own level of joy that I was convinced it was all going to come crashing down.
Notice the times in your life when you go above and beyond simply because you care so much.
I am methodical about my email inbox, and I always have a physical to-do list. Without those two things, I think I'd lose my mind.
Writing for TV entails saying every dumb idea that comes into your head to a room of people. And doing so with the confidence that it doesn't make you look like an idiot.
I love reading books that can break my heart.
Think both big and small. Loving to bake doesn't only mean becoming a baker. It could mean starting a blog, becoming a food photographer, or going into organic chemistry.
Starting with 'Forever, Interrupted,' I somehow convinced myself that in order to create content, I had to consume content. What this means is that I have legitimized binge-watching television and told myself that I must do it for work.
You can't write about an iconic Hollywood star of the sixties without bumping up against Elizabeth Taylor.
I love being a writer so much that I almost can't believe that I am one.
I'd sing all day, every day, all the time if I thought it didn't sound like dying cats.
Sometimes you are strong, sometimes you are weak.
I came across 'The Song of Achilles' by Madeline Miller in one of the most romantic ways one can find a story. I was digging through a pile of used books at my local library when my hand gravitated toward its brilliant teal and glistening gold cover.
I've always thought that a good book should be either the entry point inward, to learn about yourself, or a door outward, to open you up to new worlds.
As an author, I had spent years writing my stories on my own in a quiet room. My ideas traveled from my brain to my fingers, executed exactly as I saw fit, never veering from my own intent. TV simply doesn't work that way.
We often compare the experience of writing a book to that of playing God. It is up to us, and only us, to determine what happens to the people we invent. It is for us alone to determine what is good and bad, just and unjust, appropriate and inappropriate for the worlds we create. I love that about writing books.
I sense that by writing both books and television, I've become better at each.
Some days, I'll tell you that everything in life was meant to be and that there is an order to the universe. Other days, I'm convinced it's all a combination of luck and opportunity.
You have to know your value, demand to be respected, speak your mind, and dare to ask for what you want. I struggle with every single one of these.
My passion is capturing what it feels like to love, be it romantic or otherwise. I love to watch two people realize what they meant for each other - and that goes across all media, books, TV, movies, personal essays; everything.
I had moved across the country, taken internships, networked, worked long hours, and called in favors to get there. And I had done it. I was working in Hollywood. So imagine the melancholy I found myself in when I realized that I didn't love casting the way that I always thought I would.
There is nothing quite like having your book read and truly understood. It's all the better when it's someone who knows how to go out there and sell it.
I never wanted a big wedding. I never wanted to wear a white dress or throw a bouquet.
Why did I elope with my husband after knowing him for only four months? I wish I could show people the picture of the two of us that night and have them feel what I felt. But it's just a picture. It can only capture how things looked, not how they felt.
My husband makes sacrifices so that I can shine.
As an author and a burgeoning screenwriter, the fact of the matter is I cannot do this alone.
I write a book a year while creating TV and film projects. And being a writer isn't just writing: I have to chase down paychecks and manage foreign tax payments. I maintain a vibrant relationship with readers and bloggers. And when it comes to Hollywood, I typically have to have fifteen business meetings in the hopes that one leads to a project.
It wasn't until I set out to write a novel about marriage that I realized how little I knew about the institution.
I have often lost whole days jumping from one Wikipedia article after another in an attempt to understand the full scope of marriage as an institution.
There are, essentially, as many opinions on marriage as there are people in the world.
Selling a film option and getting a studio on board can be a slow process, and until things are official, you never want to spill the beans.
I don't think I'm capable of writing without caffeine. And most of the time, that caffeine comes from iced tea.
I am constantly distracted by my own brain when I've completed a paragraph, realized I don't know what comes next, and start opening a browser tab without even realizing it.
I can't tell you how many times I've been writing and then found myself seven clicks deep into a Wikipedia entry that I don't even care about. Self-distraction appears to be my version of sleepwalking.
I've always been drawn to the idea that small choices in our lives could have drastic effects on our future.
I love writing two narratives! I think concurrent storylines are my favorite way to write a book.
Life is too short to be on a diet.
I am so fortunate to know people who have believed in me and been there for me in my very best and worst moments.
