I'm a morning person, which is a hideous thing to be. No one likes morning people, not even other morning people.

I adore the work of Stephen Sondheim. I like musicales in general. They make surprisingly great running tapes.

Children can be happy when their parents are miserable. But a parent is never happier than her unhappiest child.

In fact, I think every book I've written has been inspired by a real event.

I begin each book with a challenge to myself.

There's a serendipity to real life that the Internet can't duplicate. Do you use the library? For anything? Well, sometimes you end up picking up the book next to the one you were looking for, and it's that book that changes your life.

I think Baltimore suffers from nostalgia and it keeps us from being honest in talking about what really happened here. A place doesn't have to be perfect to be beloved, and I love this city and I love it better for seeing its flaws.