L.A. is a place people come to for all sorts of reasons, often to reinvent themselves, and that fascinates me.

I have to admit that many of the relationships I write about are destructive, but that's the yin to the yang of a good relationship. Maybe you have to experience the terrible ones to appreciate the good unions!

A haunting, harrowing punch to the heart, Among the Missing is flat-out brilliant. About the secrets we keep, the lives we are desperate to live, and the chances we miss, it's a psychological dazzler. Truly, one of my favorite books of this year-or any year.

I am an indifferent cook but I can make pie.

L.A. is a place people come to for all sorts of reasons, often to reinvent themselves, and that fascinates me.

When you love what you do, it stops seeming like work and instead becomes necessity.

I was a bookworm who aced every test - until third grade, when my teacher handed out a pop quiz about Jesus and the Apostles.