Lauren Kate
Every weekday morning, I picture my first paragraph while I hike with my dog Milo near Mulholland Drive, looking out over the San Fernando Valley. I edit the paragraph, then memorize it, so that when I get back home and sit down at my computer, the blank screen's tyranny lasts only a second or two. A brief reign!Collection: Morning
Cooking is the best way to unwind at the end of a long writing day. There's something mindless and hands-on about cooking, which makes it feel like the very opposite of writing, which is heady but inactive.
Be fearless. Be glib. Be enigmatic. Read. Never give up.
Fallen angels could not enter sanctuaries of God. The moment they crossed the threshold, the house of worship would go up in flames, incinerating every mortal inside.
People ask me, 'Why angels? Why paranormal? Why teens?' In the beginning, I'm not sure I knew I was starting down any of those twisted paths - paths that now seem so familiar to me that they are downright comforting. In the beginning, I was just writing about love.
Before 'Fallen,' I'd written love stories and more love stories. I'd fallen in love with love stories - but they were also beginning to feel just a little bit too insular, too small.
When I sit down to write a scene, I have a plan in mind, and I'm thrilled when a character disregards my goals and takes the story to a place I hadn't imagined.
I buy way too many cookbooks and read food blogs at night when I can't sleep.
Occasionally I volunteer in the kitchen of a pop-up supper club in L.A., which I really love. It's like being a line cook in a great restaurant for one night at a time.
At some point, I fell in love. Shortly thereafter, I got my heart broken. Sniff, sniff. And I realized at a young age - no matter what any adult literary critic would have us believe about female strength and autonomy - there is no test to strength of character like love.
I don't write about love because it makes for easy, passive heroes. I write about how love makes my characters more autonomous, more self-possessed, more opinionated and powerful. I write about characters who pursue relationships that make them the people they want to become. I write about love as a superpower.
It's worth pointing out that no one faults a male protagonist for falling in love. What is it about a boy needing a girl that seems to round out his character, while a girl needing a boy can be dismissed as pathetic?
I believe love's grip transcends gender. It transcends everything short of a very few primal needs like hunger, thirst, a need for oxygen.
Olivia Hussey from Zefferelli's 'Romeo and Juliet' makes the intense vulnerability of true love look magnificent.
Steve McQueen from 'The Getaway' is tough and independent. He can be diffident but is unabashed when it comes to love. And he's undeniably sexy.
Alicia Silverstone from 'Clueless' plays the role of the quintessential buttoned-up beauty who still knows how to throw down. She's intimidating from a distance but happy to befriend the new girl and show her the lay of the land.
Cam disappears at the end of 'Rapture.' It was the only way for me to say good-bye to him at the time, and it's the way he prefers to split, anyway. I always knew I would return to him. He's been my favorite from the start. Readers have long asked what happened to him, but I had to wait for his story to come to me on its own.
My process has changed in recent years because I now have two young kids. I have to be more regimented. The days are very short.
I tend to write some, then outline some, then delete some, then go back and rewrite some. I love revising and hate first drafts. I have to wear bedroom slippers. My current favorites come from the Zetter Hotel in London. They have little tobacco pipes on the toes.
She liked the way he smelled - kind of free and open, like driving with the windows down at night.Collection: Night
Sometimes beautiful things come into our lives out of nowhere. We can't always understand them, but we have to trust in them. I know you want to question everything, but sometimes it pays to just have a little faith.Collection: Beautiful
The only way to survive eternity is to be able to appreciate each moment.Collection: Inspirational
Wisdom holds a candle to experience, but you've got to take the candle and walk alone.Collection: Walks
There is no darkness as dark as a great light corrupted.Collection: Dark
Will you stay with me ” she asked. Her voice was the thinnest whisper almost canceled out by a low groan of thunder.... Forever ” he whispered back. The sweet sound of his voice filled her up.Collection: Sweet
What if the person you were meant to be with could never be yours?Collection: What If
The past is important for all the information and wisdom it holds. But you can get lost in it. You've got to learn to keep the knowledge of the past with you as you pursue the present.Collection: Past
I will wait for you as long as it takes. I will love you every moment across time.Collection: Love You
Daniel's face-- the way it had been bathed in violet light when he'd carried her home this morning-- appeared before her eyes. His gleaming golden hair. His tender, knowing eyes. The way one touch of his lips transported her far away from any darkness. For him, she'd suffer all of this, and more.Collection: Morning
what if it was enough to just stand here in the arms of someone who ared about her, to let his simple affection steady her for a little while? it felt so good just to be held.Collection: Simple
What you call love does not sound very beautiful. Think of the way we adore the Throne. That adoration makes us the best version of ourselves. We feel encouraged to go further with or instincts, not to change ourselves for love. If I were yours and you were mine, I would want you to be exactly as you are. I would never eclipse you with my desires.Collection: Beautiful
Last night we told you that none of the angels remember where we landed when we fell," Daniel said. "Yeah, about that... How's it possible?" Shelby said. "You'd think that kind of thing would leave an impression on the old memorizer." Cam's face reddened. "You try falling for nine days through multiple dimensions and trillions of miles, landing on your face, breaking your wings, rolling around concussed for who knows how long, wandering the desert for decades looking for any clue as to who or what or where you are - then talk to me about the old memorizer.Collection: Fall
Strangling is the most intimate way to kill someone.Collection: Way
I think the most tortured place in hell should be reserved not for traitors, but... for cowards. The weakest, most spineless losers. Because it seems to me that traitors? At least they made a choice. But cowards? They just run around biting their fingernails, totally afraid to do anything. Which is totally worse.Collection: Running
Would love be so different with someone else? Was love even possible with someone else? Love was supposed to be easy, wasn't it? Then why did she feel so tormented?Collection: Love Is
some angels are destined to fallCollection: Fall
Do I love him? Yes. But when the final battle comes, I'll have to kill him. That's just our reality. We both know exactly where we stand."- FrancescaCollection: I Love Him
They could steam up windows with their kisses, but as soon as they started using their mouths for other things—like talking—everything got so complicated.Collection: Kissing
No” Daniel cried “ No, no, no” Luce’s heart ached as he tore at his hair, spun in circle and let his wings bloom out to their full size.Collection: Heart
Sometimes love was not about winning, but about wise sacrifice and the realiability of friends like Arianne. Friendship, Roland realized, was its very own kind of love.Collection: Wise
As far as possible, Arianne realized, each soul had to be content alone before plunging into love, because one never knew when the other would move out of that love. It was the greatest paradox: Souls need each other, but they also need to not need each other.Collection: Moving
I cannot be other than what I am, and I am the choices of all my days.Collection: Choices
I can't wait to make you the love of my mortal life.Collection: Waiting
You are the soul that fits into mineCollection: Soul
Lys," he whispered. "Do you know what's coming?" "Yes," she whispered. "And you know that I'll be with you until the end?Collection: Ends
I've never asked for a happy endingCollection: Happy Endings
Before Luce could reply, a skinny, dark haired girl appeared in from of her, wagging her long fingers in Luce's face. "Ooooooh," the girl taunted in a ghost-story-telling voice, dancing around Luce in a circle. "The reds are watching youuuu." "Get out of here, Arriane, before I have you lobotimized," the attendant said, though it was clear from her first brief but genuine smile that she had some coarse affection for that crazy girl. It was also clear that Arriane did not reciprocate the love. She mimed a jerking-off motion at the attendant, then stared at Luce, daring her to be offended.Collection: Girl
I know he would die if you died, LuceCollection: Torment
She felt free of everything that weighted her down on Earth. Free of danger, free of any pain she'd ever felt. Free of gravity.And so in love.Collection: Pain
He dipped her low and kissed her fiercely, as if he were angry, and each time his lips left hers, even just for half a second, the most parching thirst ran through her, making her cry out.Collection: Half