Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means, this storyteller is alive. The next thing you know something fine will happen to her, something marvelous, and then she will turn around and smile.

I'm always determined that as a novelist I'm going to go out there and research my characters very thoroughly before I start writing.

Studying psychology is fun because you're always looking for the same things I think a writer should be looking for, which is the story behind the story.

Even for a girl like me, then, there comes a day when she can stop surviving and start living. To survive, you have to look good or talk good. But to end your story well-- here is the truth-- you have to talk yourself out of it.

Our own personal brand of courage - in relationships, in conflict, in our principles ­ - is as unique as our fingerprints.

And thus love makes fools of us all.

I write in the novel's afterword that our recent wars "finish not with victory or defeat but with a calendar draw-down date and a presumption that we shall never be reconciled with the enemy".