I think it's a very old and deep-seated double standard that holds that when a man writes about family and feelings, it's literature with a capital L, but when a woman considers the same topics, it's romance, or a beach book - in short, it's something unworthy of a serious critic's attention.

I love it when people ask who my influences are... or what my favorite part of my last book was... or the last great book I read.

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

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

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.

This is motherhood for you,' said my own mother. 'Going through life with your heart outside your body.

Being a novelist is hard for anyone - male or female. You don't get to quit your day job.