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

My mother was a trained nurse, and she'd tell me that patients would fight as they were administered anaesthetic, grappling to get the gas mask off their face.

All I ever wanted to do is to write stories that people will enjoy and feel at home with.

If I see Marian Keyes' books or Patricia Scanlan's books given more prominence than mine in the bookstore, I'll move mine to the front. I've told them I do this, and they've confessed to doing the same thing to me.

I think you've got to play the hand that you're dealt and stop wishing for another hand.

We are all the heroes and heroines of our own lives. Our love stories are amazingly romantic; our losses and betrayals and disappointments are gigantic in our own minds.

Of course I wanted children. Bright, gorgeous, loving children. I could almost see them.