If I think about the writers I love or might be influenced by, I can't write at all, so I pretend there aren't any.

I have a study now - I used not to. I also love working in cafes; ignoring noise is good for concentration.

Remove all the traffic lights, yellow lines, one-way systems and road markings, and let blissful anarchy prevail. I imagine it would produce a kind of harmony.

I like to come into my workspace and feel its a living environment and not frozen, which is why I often change or add to the pictures on the wall.

I dont get distracted until the weight of other things left undone finally tips the balance; my mind is flooded with calls, bills, supermarkets, letters, and I have to stop and sort things out.

My father was a screenwriter, but he was also a novelist.

Oh, I always think everyone feels left out.

Horses know how to be loyal but still keep their distance.

When Im writing, I spend all my time in The Grocer on Elgin buying ready-made meals; I think they are the only reason my husband and kids havent left me.

When I was a child, I wanted to raise horses in Wyoming or be a cabin boy on a pirate ship.

Art is inspiring. Walking into a gallery, or when the lights go up on a stage; that thrill of getting something that has nothing to do with acquisition.

There comes a moment when you realize what matters the most in your life. Let that moment be now and that matter be your love and kindness.

There is no illness that is not exacerbated by stress.

Equality of possessions is no doubt right, but, as men could not make might obey right, they have made right obey might.

We living beings, right down to crickets, ants, mosquitoes , and flies, all possess life that is without beginning or end.

The future doesn't frighten me, even if it threatens to be full of other difficulties.

My father was a sergeant with the Connecticut state police. My mother was a hairstylist.

We've found that customers are very open. They'll tell you what's going on, what's working and what's not. They're looking for help.

In modern times, what impresses one is not a simple and unassuming statement of the truth, but superficial showmanship and display.

The notion of American exceptionalism is effective in part because there is little on the face of it that is offensive.

I have a natural resistance to being humiliated.