When she smiles, it feels like the first warm day of March-- after an eternity of snow, when you suddenly remember how summer feels on the backs of your bare calves & in the part of your hair.

Your hand fits mine like the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle

Many of my books come from what if questions that I can't answer, things that I'm worried about as either a woman, a wife, a mom, an American.

I don't want to make the same mistake twice. I don't want to tell myself it's over when it's not.

Then they scrambled through the window and into the darkness, determined to turn themselves into what they were not.

The way I challenge myself is by writing something that really engages me, that doesn't have an easy answer, and isn't always an easy book to write.

You can fool yourself, you know. You'd think it's impossible, but it turns out it's the easiest thing of all.