And she thought what a clean, simple life she would have led if it weren't for love.

I mean you're given all these lessons for the unimportant things--piano-playing, typing. You're given years and years of lessons in how to balance equations, which Lord knows you will never have to do in normal life. But how about parenthood? Or marriage, either, come to think of it. Before you can drive a car you need a state-approved course of instruction, but driving a car is nothing, nothing, compared to living day in and day out with a husband and raising up a new human being.

Bravest thing about people is how they go on loving mortal beings after finding out there's such a thing as dying.

Once your mind is caught on the right snag, there's nothing so hard about the mechanics of writing.

Point of view is not something I consciously decide. Almost always, when I come up with a plot I find that the point of view has automatically arrived with it, part and parcel of the story.

I love to think about chance - about how one little overheard word, one pebble in a shoe, can change the universe.

There is no sound more peaceful than rain on the roof, if you're safe asleep in someone else's house.