How quickly we damn ourselves when we start to talk, how small and inglorious we always sound.

Perhaps this is how you know you're doing the thing you're intended to: No matter how slow or how slight your progress, you never feel that it's a waste of time.

Probably I, like a lot of people, became a writer in imitation of or in homage to the books I enjoyed. When you're so captivated by something, you think, could I do that? Hmm, let me try

We all make mistakes, don't we? But if you can't forgive yourself, you'll always be an exile in your own life.

People who think my books are autobiographical, which they're not, credit me with having a much better memory than I do. I do, however, have a powerful imagination

I don't really have special rituals, but I don't try to write fiction unless I have a minimum of a few hours. For me, it takes a while to settle into a mode where I'm truly concentrating

We have to make mistakes, its how we learn compassion for others

I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely.

Obviously the bar is much higher now for a behavior to be scandalous. Social media has really changed the way people live. It's not a new impulse; it's just being enacted in a new way.

I don't think it's shameful to admit that some days your time can be better spent reading than writing.

I have this theory that the likeability question comes up so much more with female characters created by female authors than it does with male characters and male authors

Walking away ends a battle in the heart of one, and starts a war in the soul of another.

The dream arises from a part of the mind unknown to us, but none the less important, and is concerned with the desires for the approaching day.

The Olive Garden is bringing back its 'Pasta Pass,' which lets you eat as much pasta as you want for seven weeks. In a related story, Chris Christie just suspended his campaign.

I tend to see the similarities in people and not the differences.

Guilt is the teacher, love is the lesson.

Trust no one unless you have eaten much salt with him.

When you reach that deeper level, you can't go back.

Fischer is an American Chess tragedy on par with Morphy and Pillsbury

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is in fact the gestation of a soul.

Sometimes, you get things right the first time. Others, the second. But the third time, they say, is the charm.