Of course I wanted children. Bright, gorgeous, loving children. I could almost see them.

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.

I'd die of a broken heart before breaking yours.

Love gives us a heightened consciousness through which to apprehend the world, but anger gives us a precise, detached perception of its own.

Begin accepting the gift now, and have every beautiful and good thing in life — and then share.

One of the most liberating notions is learning how many truly do not care about you, and moreover, how the few who do care about you, marvel at your indifference.

You don't talk quite like a girl who has had no advantages.

I'm saddened to see that some have been misled into believing that Mr. Disney was something other than a kind, caring man.

Whoever called snooker "chess with balls" was rude, but right.

Jamestown colony, when it was first founded as a socialist venture, dang near failed with everybody dead and dying in the snow.

I met Quincy [Jones], he had heard my album, someone played the album and he flipped over it.

I just need somewhere to dump all my negativity.