I have a great deal of empathy for anyone who's having a hard time. I believe this ability to see another's viewpoint has served me well as a writer.

Seem like a lot of people wear shoes they can't walk in.

I was a lawyer for about ten years. The law teaches one to see things from all different angles.

I wrote poetry, journals, and, especially, plays for the neighborhood kids to perform. I had an ordinary, happy childhood. Nothing much was going on, but I had fun.

In stories like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, they always say the heroine is 'as good as she is beautiful.' I wondered if people just wanted that to be true, wanted the beautiful to be good. I wondered if they wanted the ugly to be bad because then they wouldn't have to feel bad for them.

It would be so great to have someone my own age to talk to, even if it was just about books.

This isn't a fairy tale. It's New York City.