Las Vegas is incredible. Either you love it or you're a classy person with morals. I fall into the former category. It's definitely bled into my writing.

I think humor is like a shield that lets you get as close to the sad sad flame as possible - far closer, oftentimes, than drama.

exercise will never be my lover. Or even my friend. For me, a workout is more like an annoying coworker I have to see a few times a week.

During my MFA, I was lucky to be surrounded by a really supportive group of peers. And now I get feedback pretty exclusively from freaks only.

If you're a beautiful Caucasian woman, and you commit a heinous crime, it's like people don't want to acknowledge the reality of your actions.

I'm a big people pleaser; I had a very awkward adolescence. Part of me is still that person who wants everyone to like me.

I've seen men in $5,000 suits urinate in public fountains here. Las Vegas is the best place on earth.

I really want readers to put themselves into the shoes of each character. So the opening lines are an orienting technique: this is where you are, this is who you are. Go.

My writing circle isn't too full of people who fall into the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Tuesdays With Morrie" category.

Luckily I'm on prescription drugs that prevent me from worrying about anything too much.

I don't consider myself attractive. I'm an academic, and in academia, people will write you off if you look younger.

Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another.

The intermittent depression that had shadowed him throughout his adult life was about to envelop him once again.

They had long ago found out that one could not be an owner unless one were cold.

Exploring is one of my favorite things to do, but I don't really want to be in a tour group. I like doing it alone or with whomever I'm traveling with.

Most of my life I have played a lot of famous people but most of them were dead so you have a poetic license.

Nature is what we see - the hill, the afternoon, squirrel, eclipse, the bumblebee. Nay, nature is heaven. Nature is what we hear...

We have no basis to conclude she [Hillary Clinton] lied to the FBI.

I am sure you have met diplomats; they probably travel far less than you do. Okay, they get to know a place very intensely - sometimes only the capitol city.

I think the show does better with newsmakers and politicians than it does with actors.

It is much simpler to buy books than to read them and easier to read them than to absorb their contents.