I also believe that if you're really a writer, you'll write, and that nobody could stop you.

Back in the day, when I was starting out, I'd get five or 10 emails and I'd respond to every one. But after my third or fourth book it got too time-consuming.

I'm not in charge of my life.

...thinking that the world was like an orange, that I could split it open with my thumbnail and find a whole different world, the grown-up world, the secrets beneath the skin.

I don't write literary fiction - I write books that are entertaining, but are also, I hope, well-constructed and thoughtful and funny and have things to say about men and women and families and children and life in America today.

I get really starstruck and tongue tied when I'm around other writers and the conversation tends not to go well.

You move forward because thats the way it works; thats the only place you can go.