Fact-checking is so boring compared to writing fiction.

Like most-maybe all- writers, I learned to write by writing and, by example, by reading books.

All the elements of good writing depend on the writer's skill in choosing one word instead of another.

Reading was like eating alone, with that same element of bingeing.

When we humans speak, we are not merely communicating information but attempting to make an impression and achieve a goal.

What I love is how pissed off Jane Eyre is. She's in a rage for the whole novel and the payoff is she gets to marry this blind guy who's toasted his wife in the attic." -Angela Argo "Blue Angel

A lot of girls who turn into something remarkable start off as irrepressible, confident and a handful.

Like seeing a photograph of yourself as a child, encountering handwriting that you know was once yours but that now seems only dimly familiar can inspire a confrontation with the mystery of time.

We never believe we're beautiful, no matter how many times we hear it. We never believe it until someone says it in the right way.

I’ve always found that the better the book I’m reading, the smarter I feel, or, at least, the more able I am to imagine that I might, someday, become smarter.

I know a lot of Eastern Europeans, and because of what they have been through and what they have seen, they have an attitude where they are not easily fooled.

One thing I had learned from watching chimpanzees with their infants is that having a child should be fun.

Her two outstanding characteristics were self-confidence and candor. The latter sometimes got her into hot water Durrance later told Charlotte, but the former kept it from scalding her.

I always wanted to be a golfer, only I realised that if I'd played golf I would have been skint.

Leavening the flat bread of what we know, with the yeast of what we dream may come to pass.

If Jesus were born one thousand times in Bethlehem and not in me, then I would still be lost.

I wanted to have something that I was proud of and that I knew people would enjoy.

I have never been beautiful in cliche terms.

I think guitar is the best thing in the world.

I was not the kind of a principal player that was so in demand that eight or 10 or 12 scripts came per month.