Manners are the basic building blocks of civil society.

Gracious acceptance is an art - an art which most never bother to cultivate. We think that we have to learn how to give, but we forget about accepting things, which can be much harder than giving.... Accepting another person's gift is allowing him to express his feelings for you.

I just focus on getting the first scene right, with a few lines about the overall plot, and then the book grows organically.

To lose a child ... was something that could end one's world. One could never get back to how it was before. The stars went out. The moon disappeared. The birds became silent.

She was made for untidy rooms and rumpled beds.

A very powerful theme in fiction is that of loss.

If your ceiling should fall down, then you have lost a room, but gained a courtyard. Think of it that way.