People always say, "Can writing be taught?" I always think, I can teach you how to write a better sentence, how to do dialogue, how to do character, but I can't teach you how to be a decent person, and I can't teach you how to have something to say.

I have been accused of being a Pollyanna, but I think there are plenty of people dealing with the darker side of human nature, and if I am going to write about people who are kind and generous and loving and thoughtful, so what? In my life I have met astonishingly good people.

People gave me such a bad time about wanting a baby. I didn't want a baby, and I still don't. I wanted a dog.

In this life we love who we love. There were some stories in which facts were very nearly irrelevant.

I am not mature enough as a reader to enjoy a book in which I hate all the people.

I don't write for an audience, I don't think whether my book will sell, I don't sell it before I finish writing it.

She sang as if she was saving the life of every person in the room.