Around the time I graduated from high school, I decided better to underachieve and have friendship than to overachieve and be alone.

If you can't sit in a cafe quietly and be ignored, how can you observe human nature and write a story?

When I got old enough to date, I realized that Valentine's Day is just a commercial marketing scam to make men feel bad. So I let my boyfriends off the hook.

In your 20s you can be pretty, but you don't accomplish real beauty until you find wisdom and depth.

I think women in Hollywood who don't do Botox and plastic surgery are revered. I revere them... My plan is to never go there. I'm too vain to get plastic surgery because I don't like how it looks, and I want to look my best.

Even if you're unhappy, just pretend that you're happy. Eventually, your smile will be contagious to yourself. I had to learn that. I used to think, 'I'm being fake,' but you know what? Better to be fake and happy than real and miserable.