I have two dogs myself and they are always around when I write, so they tend to creep in there.

I've always liked the classic "young adult" writers like Mark Twain, Jack London, Roald Dahl, Charles Dickens. They write so clearly, and they know how to entertain.

I'm not very disciplined. I tend to write late at night because I get distracted during the day.

I'm just a dog person. I love dogs very much, especially big ones, hounds, and retrievers. I think they are funny and often have good senses of humor. Plus, they give unconditional love.

I like people who lead unusual lives, and very often a person with a disability fits into that category.

I wanted to do a collection where the narrator is constant throughout, so that there's a little unity.

I'm trying to write stories that are interesting and enjoyable.

I want the situations and plots to be surprising and unusual.

I know that some of the things which happen in these stories are not likely, but sometimes I wonder if they are not possible in some way.

I've found that I seek out oddballs; I like strange and eccentric people a lot.

Sometimes the autobiographical link in each story is very literal, like I did work at The Texas School for the Blind, and I did once lose a mattress out of the back of a friend's truck.

If you solely focus only on financial survival then that is where you will always be.

Failure is only an option

In the dust of defeat as well as the laurels of victory there is a glory to be found if one has done his best.

The struggle of today is not altogether for today - it is for a vast future also.

Coppola has problems getting financing, so why should I not have problems getting financing.

The reason I had unfaithfulness in one of my marriages is because I was too patriotic.

I'm not the girl for superhigh fashion because I don't have the right body. When I want to get dressed up, I'm a Roberto Cavalli girl.

I ski very aggressively, and the angles that I create with my body are similar to some of the male racers.

Decades after a person has stopped collecting bubble gum cards, he can still discover himself collecting ballparks... their smells, their special seasons, their moods.

Are we gonna see power laces in 2015? To that I say yes!