I actually think it's sometimes easier for the control freaks to let loose.

I think people feel for a long time that they ought to know how to write a novel in two drafts.

Whoever would write books? It's suffering as well as greatly satisfying. And certainly there's suffering in the sense that you don't know for a long time how to do it.

We still have so many cultures in which people are imprisoned and whipped and killed for writing what they think.

In many cultures, women are sometimes literally kept from learning to read or from going to school.

There's the belief that we can't be smart enough to write. And certainly censorship of women, too.

You have to write fiction that mirrors the actual world, which has people of all sorts in it.

I heard a white writer say, 'Oh, I'd never put black people in my writing, I'm afraid I would offend someone by doing it wrong.' I can't bear that!

There is a lot of censorship about writing that's exerted from all directions, from families or governments and society, even the fear of being offensive in some way.

Little children are all writers.

I love it when people can help me with my work, so I do show it.

I look back on my life like a good day's work, it was done and I am satisfied with it.

It’s not our job to assess the merit of our vision or judge its importance. It is our job to receive the vision and act upon it.

The lessons I learned in Sunday School have kept me on track

It's one of the most validating things you can do for a product is go out there and get them to commit to pay you up front.

While your children are sleeping, your puppy is crappin'.

In In Pakistan, when we were stopped from going to school, at that time I realized that education ... Is the power for women, and that's why the terrorists are afraid of education.

You've got to set high standards for yourself.

It's OK to take care of yourself.

It's not just that toil allows the appearance of spontaneity. It allows the actuality of spontaneity.

But there's no substitute for getting smarter faster. And the way you get smarter is to screw around vigorously. Try stuff. See what works. See what fails miserably. Learn. Rinse. Repeat.