I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks.

I try to make my characters kind of ordinary, somebody that anybody could be. Because we've all had loves, perhaps love and loss, people can relate to my characters.

Nobody is ordinary if you know where to look.

I'm an escapist kind of writer.

Women who start out as ugly ducklings don't become beautiful swans. What they mainly become is confident ducks. They take charge of their lives.

The whole art of life is knowing the right time to say things.

Always write as if you are talking to someone. It works. Don't put on any fancy phrases or accents or things you wouldn't say in real life.

If you don't go to a dance you can never be rejected but you'll never get to dance either.

Because I saw my parents relaxing in armchairs and reading and liking it, I thought it was a peaceful grown-up thing to do, and I still think that.

We are all the heroes and heroines of our own lives. Our love stories are amazingly romantic; our losses and betrayals and disappointments are gigantic in our own minds.

I have always believed that life is too short for rows and disagreements. Even if I think I'm right, I would prefer to apologize and remain friends rather than win and be an enemy.

To live drown in love.To live like the dead, fear the love.

The universe ought to be presumed too vast to have any character.

Learning starts with failure; the first failure is the beginning of education.

This country wants to live in the illusion that it is tolerant but also wants to be able to practice intolerance.

I believe in the Golden Rule. I believe in practicing it.

I don't want to take fame for granted because that is when you start to think you are better than everyone else. That is when you start thinking that you are someone that you are not.

Reporters don't know me, because I don't talk to them; I just talk to the players.

The only advice we gave Richie Faulkner was we wanted Richie to be his own guy. You have to let your musicians in your band be who they are.

Be wicked, be brave, be drunk, be reckless, be dissolute, be despotic, be a suffragette, be anything you like, but for pity's sake be it to the top of your bent.

Be cheerful; wipe thine eyes: Some falls are means the happier to arise