Before I published anything, I dreamed of publication, but I didn't actually write for it. I imagined that writing for an audience was something for fancier people. I aspired, but mostly I wrote for myself. I wrote because it made me happy.

They say change gets more difficult as we get older - each year we're more stuck in our ways, more reluctant to learn something new.

A lot of women make choices based on how they saw their mother's choices working out, how they saw the choices of the women elders in their lives working out. There's some rebellion in that, but there's also some deep reflection.

I think there are different kinds of happiness. We know when we're happy a lot of the time, but then there are those moments that have more of an afterglow, when the happiness has more depth.

Settling other people's land is an American tradition.

I always do like seeing other people dance in their cars. It's one of the things that makes me happy.

Looking for the perfect day is not going to make us happy, because that day isn't going to come.