I actually don't shop very much. I have a tendency to rotate a few pairs of ripped jeans and an old cashmere sweater.

When I was 8, I was reading a book in which it was snowing. When I looked outside, I expected there to be snow on the ground. I thought, "This is the most powerful thing I can do! I'm going to be a writer."

My decorating and renovation skills are nil - indeed, I once used a shower curtain from Pottery Barn as 'window dressing.

The heart wants what the heart wants," she says, somewhat cryptically. I purse my lips in disapproval. "You'd think the heart would know better.

Retribution is tricky. . . . The insult isn't usually worth the risk of punishment. And eventually one learns that karma has a surprising way of taking care of these situations. All you have to do is sit back and watch.

New York is a city where people are ambitious. They want things.

I love Chicago. I lived there briefly for three months and kept a boat under one of those space-age buildings. It was very Jetsons.