I just like to inhabit a character really deeply.

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

All bombing is terrorism.

Leaving the rat race is easy. All you have to do is quit your job, sell your house, and go and live in a tent in the middle of nowhere. It’s staying out of the rat race that’s tricky.

I've never seen a moon in the sky that, if it didn't take my breath away, at least misplaced it for a moment.

When I was growing up in New York City, my father was a taxi driver for a time.

The streets are safe in Philadelphia. It's only the people who make them unsafe.

Being a working mother means that you are always disappointing somebody.

That's how it goes, my friend. The problem is not falling a captive, it's how to avoid surrender.

People were excited by violence. What, after all, was the sexual act but a voluntarily endured assault, a momentary death?

Let us agree not to step on each other’s feet.

IT don't matter if you win by an inch or a milewinning is winning!!