At age 12, I was put on tranquilizers when I should have gotten help. There was nothing major and awful, I just didn't feel my family was supportive and emotionally generous

Pistachio nuts, the red ones, cure any problem.

When my father would yell at me, I told myself someday I'd use it in a book.

I want to keep meeting new people, enlarging my circle of friends. I have great friends now... really good people. But I'm always ready for what comes next

Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don't forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a story that tells the truth.

Normally, I name my characters after famous comedians.

My father was a very unhappy person, very sarcastic, and my mother was very nervous and worried about what people thought. They weren't monsters, but it wasn't a good childhood.

I'm very lucky. I'm very fortunate that my books have never gone out of print - none of them

We spend our whole lives recovering from high school.

I made the choice long ago to write about real life. And life is both serious and funny.

Sometimes it's easier to show than it is to tell

I grew up in an immigrant neighborhood. We just knew the rule was you're going to have to work twice as hard.

That's what I really wanted to do when I was 16, be in comics!

You have to stick to what you love, as writing is such a lonely and depressing existence... stick to what you love and someone will hear your voice.

I've often been told that I'm a bit strange. I hear that pretty regularly, but it is not how I see myself.

And that's just it, isn't it? That's how we manage to survive the loss. Because love, it never dies, it never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it.

You need to get ready because I have explosive blessings coming your way.

She gets naughty with her Pilates body And she thinks it's really funny when her nose goes bloody

If you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin the hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips.

Profit isn't a purpose, it's a result. To have purpose means the things we do are of real value to others.

When two parties make a compact, there results to each a power of compelling the other to execute it.