Kate Atkinson is an absolute must-read. I love everything she writes.

Let me back up a little and tell you why I prefer writing to real life: You can rewrite. A novel, for example, can be cleaned up, altered, trimmed, improved. Life, on the other hand, is one big messy rough draft.

In real life, coincidences happen all the time. In novels, they are leapt upon with fury.

I'm thinking of taking up golf, but the idea of spending time with golfers frightens me.

We're called New Jersey but we're actually the suburbs of New York.

You bring your own weather to the picnic.

I like to go out and write. So I'll often go to a Starbucks or a local coffee bar, and I'll sit there and I'll write. I can write pretty much anywhere.