What you say is what matters.

Because I write realistic fiction, I generally don't think about fixing anyone - I just think about how I want to feel at the end of the book - And I try to write toward that feeling.

I feel like the world stopped. And I got off...and then it started spinning again, but too fast for me to hop back on. I feel like I'm still trying to get a...to get some kind of foothold on living

Sometimes it seems as though not a moment has moved, but then you look up and you're already old or you already have a household of kids or you look down and see your feet are miles and miles away from the rest of you—and you realize you've grown up.

Keep on doing what you're doing.

Don't trust women, my mother said to me. Even the ugly ones will take what you thought was yours.

Time comes to us softly, slowly. It sits beside us for a while. Then, long before we are ready, it moves on.