I studied English literature in the honors program, which means that you had to take courses in various centuries. You had to start with Old English, Middle English, and work your way toward the modern. I figured if I did that it would force me to read some of the things I might not read on my own.

That's the way I will write characters, put a fair amount of myself in them, and then everyone else who was like that person, I will pick and choose.

We listened to them, but it was clear they'd received too much therapy to know the truth.

The girls took into their own hands decisions better left to God. They became too powerful to live among us, too self-concerned, too visionary, too blind.

She wanted out of the decorating scheme.

There is a small window of opportunity for freckled girls to tan.

She could become a spinster, like Emily Dickinson, writing poems full of dashes and brilliance, and never gaining weight.