Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings.

I always used to be an inside person, and now I'm an outside person.

shame should be reserved for the things we choose to do, not the circumstances that life puts on us

Write because you love the art and the discipline, not because you're looking to sell something.

You can’t control what other people think about your art. Think about the part of yourself that you can control, which is your ability to be kind and loving and creative.

My novels are very much the same, as I think many people's novels are. No matter how hard I try to do otherwise, the books always wind up being "a group of strangers are thrown together by circumstance and form a society."

Part of it is living in Tennessee. I'm so out of the loop. And as a person, I'm out of the loop. I'm oblivious by nature.