Truth is, every writer has to be a good editor, and you have to edit yourself. It's a skill every writer has to acquire.

My theory is that you find out who your true friends are when something good happens to you, not when something bad happens to you. Everybody loves you when something bad happens to you. Then you're easy to love.

I love my job, and I love books. I read anything, including cereal boxes. I care deeply about what people think of my books, and I memorize my reviews. I love to hear from my readers.

You can really help support a character if you understand the setting. So for that reason I generally write about Philadelphia.

We can't control what people do or say, even if it's dumb.

There was no known cure for a Catholic education.

And wouldn't we be better off if every New Year's, we thought about the things we did right and we resolved to keep doing them, no matter how wacky they were.