Sometimes the worst thing that happens to you, the thing you think you can't survive...it's the thing that makes you better than you used to be.

The idea you can tell a writer of a specific religion to stop writing about that religion is presumptuous.

I was an English major in college, took a ton of creative writing courses, and was a newspaper reporter for 10 years.

She thought of what it would be like to grow up without the one certainty that every baby deseved - when I'm hurt or cold or scared, someone will come and care for me - and how that absence could warp you so that you'd lash out at the people you loved, driving them away when all you wanted to do was pull them closer.

I could have told him that nothing was safe and that no matter how careful you were and how hard you tried, there were still accidents, hidden traps, and snares. You could get killed on an airplane or crossing the street. Your marriage could fall apart when you weren't looking; your husband could lose his job; our baby could get sick or die.

I'm going to continue writing. I'll always be a storyteller. But I'm also taking time to enjoy my life.

Cram your head with characters and stories. Abuse your library privileges. Never stop looking at the world, and never stop reading to find out what sense other people have made of it. If people give you a hard time and tell you to get your nose out of a book, tell them you're working. Tell them it's research. Tell them to pipe down and leave you alone.