I am a natural optimist but there were times when (it seemed like) I was doing nothing but adding up on the back of envelope what I had to pay this month.

The flame of inspiration needs to be encouraged. Put a glass around that small candle and protect it from discouragement or ridicule.

Approach your lives as if they were novels, with their own heroes, villains, red herrings, and triumphs.

The truth is I hate cocktail parties when the only person I know is my supposed date, and he abandons me the minute we come in the door.

The first four months of writing the book, my mental image is scratching with my hands through granite. My other image is pushing a train up the mountain, and it's icy, and I'm in bare feet.

It's funny how, even long after you've accepted the grief of losing someone you love and truly have gotten on with your life, every once in a while something comes up that plays "gotcha," and for a moment or two the scar tissue separates and the wound is raw again.

Writing is storytelling. No matter how you slice it, you're saying, 'Once upon a time.' That's what writing is all about.