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

I begin each book with a challenge to myself.

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

Reading was not a fallback position for her but an ideal state of being.

I'm at the age most people are sending their kids off to college.

There was nothing more dangerous than people convinced of their own good intentions.

As for music, my tastes are eclectic. Elvis Costello is my all-time favorite. I listen to a lot of jazz, primarily the great female vocalists, and I am very fond of the late cabaret singer Nancy Lamott.