It's the one thing we never quite get over: that we contain our own future.

Once the rains abated, my father's garden thrived in the heat like an unleashed temper.

Mother could go for one year without food, but not one day without her lip sticks.

It's a funny thing: people often ask how I discipline myself to write. I can't begin to understand the question. For me, the discipline is turning off the computer and leaving my desk to do something else.

The reason most people have kids is because they get pregnant.

I learned to write by reading the kind of books I wished I'd written.

I believe with all my heart in delivering on my contract with my readers. They've got plenty of other things to do, so I had better give them a reason to turn every one of these 550 pages. This is my promise: I solemnly swear I'll make you laugh out loud at least once, cry a little in private, and burn whatever you left on the stove.