My narrators tend to be women with low self-esteem, so I can send them to charm school.

I was a roving guard on the Lowell Hebrew Community Center's girls' basketball team all through high school. My specialty was stealing the ball, but my only shot was a lay-up.

Five hundred words a day is what I aim for. And I don't go on to the next chapter until I've polished and polished and polished the one I'm working on.

I wear a pedometer, aiming for five miles a day - don't be too impressed; that includes walking around my house and food shopping.

I watch golf on television, although I don't golf - except for visits to the driving range in spurts.

It was a noteworthy lesson, even for someone who'd been fed a daily diet of italicized lessons: that people in high places, luminaries with advanced degrees in Classics and in possession of excellent manners, can disappoint you as profoundly as anyone else.

I was nearly fired from my second job, which was writing press releases for Boston's public television station.