My mother was a trained nurse, and she'd tell me that patients would fight as they were administered anaesthetic, grappling to get the gas mask off their face.

I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks.

I try to make my characters kind of ordinary, somebody that anybody could be. Because we've all had loves, perhaps love and loss, people can relate to my characters.

Nobody is ordinary if you know where to look.

I'm an escapist kind of writer.

Women who start out as ugly ducklings don't become beautiful swans. What they mainly become is confident ducks. They take charge of their lives.

The whole art of life is knowing the right time to say things.

Always write as if you are talking to someone. It works. Don't put on any fancy phrases or accents or things you wouldn't say in real life.

If you don't go to a dance you can never be rejected but you'll never get to dance either.

Because I saw my parents relaxing in armchairs and reading and liking it, I thought it was a peaceful grown-up thing to do, and I still think that.

We are all the heroes and heroines of our own lives. Our love stories are amazingly romantic; our losses and betrayals and disappointments are gigantic in our own minds.

Books may be irrelevant until it's relevance, importance and purpose is discovered through reading

Hey, Cath. Will you warn me when you take off your glasses?

That your friend is succeeding does not mean you are failing.

Normally, I stay away from politics - unless I'm going to run for president.

There is a true weakness in American thought today: their incapacity to be interested in the intelligence of evil.

Sometimes a winner is just a dreamer who never gave up.

American English is the greatest influence of English everywhere.

I could actually do a lot more if I didn't have things go wrong. So, what I am trying to do now is stay light on the parasites. If you are not drained by anyone you can do way more.

I've never really felt like I was a child actor. Just an actor who happened to be quite young.

Even beyond sexuality, I'm generally interested in identity.