The desire to write a novel is the single required prerequisite for writing a novel.

Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel.

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.

I suspected that there were things he knew that I had been waiting all my life to learn.

In many ways, being honest about 'Huckleberry Finn' goes right to the heart of whether we can be honest about our heritage and our identity as Americans.

Even if my marriage is falling apart and my children are unhappy, there is still a part of me that says, 'God, this is fascinating!'

Take naps. Often new ideas come together when you are half asleep, but you have to train yourself to remember them.

Candy is my fuel. Ice cream, too.

But what truly horsey girls discover in the end is that boyfriends, husbands, children, and careers are the substitute-for horses

In every society, the artists will be the ones who set themselves up as contrary to whatever the society expects.

I cannot live without books.

It's not the nineteenth century

Which would be worse- to live as a monster, or to die as a free man?

Where do storytellers find the wisdom to discover their own stories? From no place more mysterious than their own hearts.

One can endure sorrow alone, but it takes two to be glad.

Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more.

If you have unskilled people who work poorly together, no amount of process will save your projects.

It's been my dream since I was a child to somehow unite people of the world through love and music.

When caught in conflict and blame - make a U-turn and shift your attention from blaming thoughts to what's going on emotionally in your body.

I want to love, but my hair smells of war and running and running.