Ive tried to avoid labels, but they always find you.

New Orleans cuisine is Creole rather than Cajun.

In the Netherlands I read the first chapter of Exquisite Corpse to an audience that laughed in all the places I thought were funny - an experience I've never had in America!

The night is the hardest time to be alive and 4am knows all my secrets.

You hold onto what you have; you do not give it up easily, even when you know it is poisoning you.

You can only maintain an immensely gothic attitude for so long before either killing yourself or beginning to feel like a poser.

Some nights are made for torture, or reflection, or the savoring of loneliness.

I can't heal your pain but I can see it. And you don't have to be lost. Not forever.

Young writers shouldn't be afraid of striving to emulate their favorites. It's a good way to learn, as long as you move on from it and don't publish too many of the results.

Never relinquish your terrors. That's when they catch you.

My childhood may have been more demented than most, because I learned to read very early and was allowed to read whatever I wanted.

The opportunity, number one, to work with Ang Lee is an amazing thing for me.

We not only have a legal obligation to honor our commitments, we have a moral obligation to provide the coverage we promised to provide to these people.

I like the sitcom, as a structure.

The wild-flower wreath of feeling, the sunbeam of the heart.

I'm not harmful, just introspective. You can probably think I'm weird, but it's not harmful weird.

A nation's institutions and beliefs are determined by it's character.

I write adult fiction, but a good 40 to 50 per cent of my readers are teenagers. I love that if they have to grow up and move past JK Rowling they can move to me. From Jo to Jodi!

Shopkeepers are not bankers.

When it comes to personnel issues, I act professionally and respectful of former employees. I just assume that's a two-way street. It's disappointing when it's not.

All I can say is what I've always said: If you break your leg, stop thinking about dancing and start decorating the cast.