You are always someones favorite unfolding story

I will go and speak at rotary clubs. I will go and speak at schools. I'm so much in the community, but in a way that I love. It's been such a positive thing.

When well told, a story captured the subtle movement of change. If a novel was a map of a country, a story was the bright silver pin that marked the crossroads.

I was very influenced by The Magic Mountain. It's a book that had a huge impact on me. I loved that as a shape for a novel: put a bunch of people in a beautiful place, give them all tuberculosis, make them all stay in a fur sleeping bag for several years and see what happens.

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

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

Home, bed, sleep, mother--who knew more beautiful words than these?