The birth mother is placing the baby out of love. I still believe that. Well, the ones weve dealt with who were actually pregnant, anyway.

I want to say that, in general, when it works, open adoption is great.

History releases me from my own experience and jogs my fictional imagination.

It would be a lie to say that people are coming to adoption with joy at all times. Hope, perhaps, but it would be disingenuous to say that every part coming to an adoption isn't seriously grieving.

I feel like if writers used writing as therapy we'd have a ton of happy writers.

I think that when the world feels safe and secure, we probably feel more that way in our personal lives. What goes on in the world affects us, unequivocally.

The past always sort of haunts us and perhaps inspires us in some ways.

I'm a morning person: if I don't get up, put the coffee on and get to my desk by 8, the day has already lost a lot of its promise.

As writers, we don't just need to write about poverty or war or the immigrant experience.

I feel sometimes like a book tour is a slow series of humiliations and that if you're strong you'll come out of it OK.

I find I have to touch what I am working on every day, or a deep-seated dread kicks in that is very hard to overcome.

Do something new and expect new result.

Mean wordsOnce upon a time, I loved you But I will neverI swear.

You cannot argue stupidity, you just have to accept it patiently as one of those things.

Branding is not just about social media

Energy independence and energy security are really two different things.

Microfinance is an idea whose time has come.

It's the light of the oncoming train.

A successful business is either loved or needed.

Live with compassion. Work with compassion. Die with compassion. Meditate with compassion. Enjoy with compassion. When problems come, experience them with compassion.

Am I a weed, carried this way, that way, on a tide that comes twice a day without a meaning?