My father was a writer; I've known a lot of children of writers - daughters and sons of writers, and it can be a hard way to grow up.

Girls are the best readers in the world. Reading is really a way of kind of escaping so deeply into yourself and pursuing your own thoughts within the construct of a story.

My mother was very involved with Cesar Chavez's work on behalf of the migrant farm workers in California.

Marriage remains the most efficient engine of disenchantment yet invented.

Female adolescence is - universally - an emotionally and psychologically intense period.

In many respects a teenage girl's home is more important to her than at any time since she was a small child. She also needs emotional support and protection from the most corrosive cultural forces that seek to exploit her when she is least able to resist.

If you're a writer, you just keep following the path - keep going deeper and deeper into the things that interest you.