By sharing an experience, or creating an experience that we all go through where the character survives - though not easily, I always say that it's victory at a price - does give people hope.

I'm astonished by my success.

People are so obsessed with that these days. As long as you're healthy, what difference do a few pounds make? Crazy diets. Thirteen-year-old girls on magazine covers who wind up in hospitals because they're so anorexic. Real women don't look like that. And who wants them to? No one wants a woman who looks sick or like she;s been from a refugee camp.

People do strange things sometimes, when they feel hopeless.

To be able to touch lives, and touch a life that you don't even know, is an extraordinary thing.

It's hard to make changes. Things get so comfortable and you don't want to move. Maybe it would do you good to be a little uncomfortable for a while, and do something different.

Love is messy. If you really love someone, you can't avoid the pain. People die, people leave, things change, but sometimes it all works