I have this theory that the likeability question comes up so much more with female characters created by female authors than it does with male characters and male authors

I think I would have liked to have been a twin... Sometimes my sisters and I get mistaken for twins, and I always take it as a compliment.

It is not a camera, or a reporter that makes something real and genuine; more often a camera or a reporter does the opposite.

... nothing broke my heart like the slow death of a shared joke that had once seemed genuinely funny.

I've had people say very dismissive things about my books, but I also feel like I probably have more readers because I'm a woman. I mean, more readers are women and more people who buy books are women, so I don't feel like it's a total disadvantage to be a female writer.

What greater happiness is there than the privilege of being bored together?

Being raised in an unstable household makes you understand that the world doesn't exist to accommodate you, which... is something a lot of people struggle to understand well into their adulthood. It makes you realize how quickly a situation can shift, how danger really is everywhere. But crises when the occur, do not catch you off guard; you have never believed you lived under a shelter of some essential benevolence. And an unstable childhood makes you appreciate calmness and not crave excitement.