I think of Nashville as a very natural place. We're easy going, we are ourselves. There isn't a lot of preening or trying to impress. So it's an easy place to just be and that is a good state from which to write.

Love is a rebellious bird that no one can tame

If a person has never given writing a try, they assume that a brilliant idea is hard to come by. But really, even if it takes some digging, ideas are out there. Just open your eyes and look at the world. Writing the ideas down, it turns out, is the real trick.

Well, I always say that the two things I was most disastrous at in my life, being a teenager and being a wife, were the two things I really wound up cashing in on when I was writing fluffy magazine pieces.

The quality of gifts depends on the sincerity of the giver.

I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing.

I could teach. I could wait tables. I could cook in a restaurant. Food and teaching were the two skills I had.