Who said you had to fill his shoes? Wear your own shoes. They're bound to fit better. Walk your own path your own way and you'll be more likely to get to where you need to be.

For as long as I can remember, I've always been interested in issues of social justice, political freedom, and civil rights.

Deception by an omission of the truth is as bad as a lie.

People need stories...we use stories to teach, to learn, to make sense of the world around us. As long as we need stories, we will need books.

When I was working on my first novel, 'The Quilter's Apprentice,' I knew I wanted to write about friendship, especially women's friendship and how women use friendship to sustain themselves and nurture each other.

Elizabeth Keckley was a woman of remarkable strength, courage, perseverance, and dignity. She was exceptionally talented, but also very diligent and ambitious, and together those qualities enabled her to deliver herself from slavery and become a successful businesswoman.

People who assume my books are only about quilts obviously haven't read them! I've always known that my books are about quilters - in other words, people - rather than quilts or quilting.