After my hip operation, I had to cut out butter, which I loved, and salt. I no longer eat desserts with lots of cream, and I've cut right back on alcohol.

I have great family and good friends; the stories I told became popular, and people all over the world bought them.

I discovered that men were just like everyone else, really. They liked you if you were good-tempered and easy to talk to. And being a big girl meant other females trusted you more and confided in you.

We have to make our own happiness, and we have to make our own decisions and play the hand that is dealt to us.

We're nothing if we're not loved. When you meet somebody who is more important to you than yourself, that has to be the most important thing in life, really. And I think we are all striving for it in different ways. I also believe very, very strongly that everybody is the hero/heroine of his/her own life. I try to make my characters kind of ordinary, somebody that anybody could be. Because we've all had loves, perhaps love and loss, people can relate to my characters

Never mind money; the gifts of time and skill call into being the richest marketplace in the world.

I do try to live every day as if it were my last, and it has worked for me so far.