Sometimes lost treasures can be reclaimed.

I never claimed to be a low-maintenance gal, but when I'm writing, it's particularly challenging. I lose things constantly: my watch, my glasses, my papers, my mind.

Friends are supposed to act like harbor boats-let you know if you're off course. But it ain't always possible.

we have to suffer mosquitoes the size of blackbirds.

Good enough is good enough. Perfect will make you a big fat mess every time.

At the beauty of what she had stumbled onto, at the fear that something terrible would happen because she was not vigilant enough. She cried at the fear of something so good that she would not be brave enough to bear it.

I come to writing from hearing great stories as a child in Louisiana, where the mark of a person was his or her ability to be a raconteur. I also come to writing as a professional actress whose body has been trained to listen and smell and inhabit characters without judgment.