"If I behave as though this is a completely normal situation, then maybe it will be ..."

"In the end, you have to choose whether or not to trust someone."

"People move on. Friendship end."

"How are you going to forget him if you keep talking about him? Darling, when things go wrong in life, this is what you do. You lift your chin, put on a ravishing smile, mix yourself a little cocktail... and out you go."

"It's the way he had a cup of tea waiting for me when I woke up. It's the way he turned on his laptop especially for me to look up all my Internet horoscopes and helped me choose the best one. He knows all the crappy, embarrassing bits about me that I normally try to hide from any man for as long as possible and he loves me anyway."

"When I was your age, if a boy behaved badly, one simply scored his name out from one's dance card.(Sadie Lancaster - to Lara Lington)"

"I never did any training in journalism or in finance, so I really was in the deep end. I got very good at going to press conferences and nodding. I'd figure it out when I got back to the office. Charts and numbers. I've never been great with facts, ever, my whole life. For a journalist, that's not a very good trait."

"I would like a cappuccino," says Linus politely. "Thank you.""Your name?""I'll spell it for you," he says. "Z-W-P-A-E-N--""What?" She stares at him, Sharpie in hand."Wait, I haven't finished. Double F-hyphen-T-J-U-S. It's an unusual name, Linus adds gravely. "It's Dutch."

"If my writing comes to a halt, I head to the shops: I find them very inspirational. And if I get into real trouble with my plot, I go out for a pizza with my husband."

"To be honest, going out with Ed after Josh is like moving on to Duchy Originals super-tasty seeded loaf after plastic white bread. (I don't mean to be rude about Josh. And I didn't realize it at the time. But it is. He is. Plastic white bread.)"

"I'm allergic to family occasions. Sometimes I think we'd do better as dandelion seeds-no family, no history, just floating off into the world, each on our own piece of fluff."

"This is what happens. You tell your friends your most personal secrets, and they use them against you."

"We're all to driven by materialism. Obsessed with success. With money. With trying to impress people who'll never be impressed."

"She's been used to hiding her feelings for so long, no wonder her manner can be a little awkward."

"Everyone's moving on without me, into a world I don't understand."

"Everyone knows revenge is a dish best served when you've had enough time to build up enough vitriol and fury."

"Everyone should keep a dream journal, did you know that?"

"A real relationship is two-way."

"I think a lot of people still fantasise about that first love and what might happen if they rekindled the relationship."

"Becky --" he begins, and there's a tiny intake of breath around the churchyard. "Will you--" "Yes! Yeee-esssss!" I hear the joyful sound ripping through the churchyard before I even realize I've opened my mouth. I'm so charged up with emotion, my voice doesn't even sound like mine. In fact, it sounds more like...Mum.I don't believe it."

"People used to ask me for advice, and I'd say, 'Please, don't ask me!' Yes, I did economics at Oxford, but that's not the same as having a broad knowledge of personal finance."

"Our whole family thrives under pressure. It's like our family motto or something.Apart from my brother Peter, of course. He had a nervous break down. But the rest of us."

"London is one of the most fascinating, historic, amazing cities in the world!"

"As I stare at it,I can feel little invisible strings,silently tugging me toward it. I have to touch it. I have to wear it. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"But you can't stay with people because of guilt. Or because they can drive a speedboat."

"Look into your heart- and go after what you really want."

"A relationship is a game of chess."

"It's like I'm thirteen again and he's my crush. All I'm aware of in this entire roomful of people is him. Where he is, what he's doing, who he's talking to."

"There's no such thing as ruining your life. Life's a pretty resilient thing, it turns out."

"I always thought 'chick lit' meant third-person contemporary funny novels, dealing with issues of the day. I mean, it's not the ideal term; when I'm asked to describe what I do, I say I write romantic comedies, cause that's what I feel they are. But I'm quite pragmatic."

"You can want and want and want, but if he doesn't want you back ... you might as well wish the sky were red."

"When the dog bites, when the bee stings... I simply remember I have a boyfriend and suddenly things don't seem quite so completely shit."

"I'm Cinderella. No, I'm better than Cinderella, because she only got the prince, didn't she? I'm Cinderella with fab teeth and a shit-hot job."

"Sometimes you don't need a goal in life, you don't need to know the big picture. you just need to know what you're going to do next!"

"Love is all that counts in this crazy, mixed-up world..."

"Some of us have hearts, you know. Some of us don't give up on true love."

"Relationships are all about trust and equality. If one person shares, then the other person should share, too."

"I can never resist telling people good news. I mean, why not brighten someone else's life too?"

"Lover? I don't know. I don't know if she loves me. I don't know if I love her. All I can say is, she's the one I think about. All the time. She's the voice I want to hear. She's the face I hope to see."

"I'd laugh, only my stupid lizard brain has disabled the laugh button for now. I'm too frozen up with tension.I am owed so much laughter. Sometimes I hope I'm building up a stockpile of missing laughs, and when I've recovered, they'll all come exploding out in one gigantic fit that last twenty-four hours."

"We're playing Scrabble. It's a nightmare.""Scrabble?" He sounds surprised. "Scrabble's great.""Not when you're playing with a family of geniuses, it's not. They all put words like 'iridiums'. And I put 'pig'."

"People change. Life changes. It's the way of the world. Maybe it's meant to be."

"Relationships should be built on trust and truth."

"I feel all agitated, like one of those snow globes you see resting peacefully on shop counters. I was perfectly happy being an ordinary, dull little Swiss village. But now Jack Harper's come and shaken me up, and there are snowflakes all over the place, whirling around until I don't know what I think anymore. And bits of glitter, too. Tiny bits of shiny, secret excitement."

"You may be able to sway people's heads. But you can't sway their hearts."

"Shopping with friends is a great way of still enjoying the thrill of the chase without having to make a purchase. It can also be a real bonding opportunity. Helping your friend find something nice is just as rewarding as helping yourself."

"Don't beat yourself up for not knowing the answers. You don't always have to know who you are. You don't have to have the big picture, or know where you're heading. Sometimes, it's enough just to know what you're going to do next."

"That's the trouble with having the whole world love you. One day, you wake up and it's flirting with your best friend instead. And you don't know what to do. You're thrown."