Then again, the name, the associations with a writer's name, can add to the reader's entertainment and pleasure.

After my first novel, my mother said to me, 'Why don't you make your writing more funny? You're so funny in person.' Because my first novel was rather dark. And I don't know, but something about what she said was true. 'Yes, why don't I?' Maybe I was afraid to be funny in the writing. But since then, seven books later, almost everything I've done has a comedic edge to it.

I certainly want to portray the importance of friendship. I had noticed in movies and TV shows that friends often treated one another terribly, and my friends, the few I have, are never cruel to me or unkind, so I wanted to convey that.

As a child, I wanted to be an athlete, a professional tennis player or something like that.

Oh, God, I don't know what's more difficult, life or the English language.

I am part of a vast generation of people who perpetually live as if they just graduated from college.

Mostly I have to try to censor myself so as not to write things that will hurt other people, or that will go too far.