Look around at the azaleas making fuchsia star bursts in spring; look at a full moon hanging silver in a black sky on a cold night. And realize that life is glorious, and that you have no business taking it for granted.

The New Testament has had a really powerful effect on how I write and how I live my life.

When an actress takes off her clothes onscreen but a nursing mother is told to leave, what message do we send about the roles of women?

When I write a novel, I have what I think of as an icon that helps get me into the world of the book.

I will never understand people who think that the way to show their righteous opposition to sexual freedom is to write letters full of filthy words.

We are writers. We danced with words, as children, in what became familiar patterns. The words became our friends and our companions, and without even saying it aloud, a thought danced with them: I can do this. This is who I am.

Reading is another thing that has made me more human by exposing me to worlds I might never have entered and people I might never meet.