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.

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.

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

I just think that people are complicated, both men and women. It happens that I write more about women.

I'm pretty sure my house in Florida is haunted! He's a nice ghost though.

There has never been a time in my life when I felt that I could take a gun and shoot down a fellow-being. In this respect I am a Quaker.

Profit maximization is the murderous strategy of global corporation hierarchies

Good education has got to be good entertainment.

Maybe a story will cheer you up... Once there was an ugly barnacle. He was so ugly that everyone died. The End.

It is not the function of government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

I grew up only singing country. I did listen to like Debbie Gibson and other pop music, but I would only sing country music.

If it were necessary to give the briefest possible definition of imperialism, we should have to say that imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism.

Fix upon your ideal of what you wish to make of yourself.