I don't do research for my novels. Obviously, in my other line of work as a reporter and a columnist, I've had the opportunity to get to know both social workers and TV talk-show hosts.

Choose the kids. There will be plenty of time later to choose work.

We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind.

I'm a Catholic of the New Testament, I'm not a Catholic of the hierarchy.

I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me.

part of the problem with a war on poverty today is that many Americans have decided that being poor is a character defect, not an economic condition.

All of the qualities that you need to be a good opinion columnist tend to be qualities that aren't valued in women.