She asked me why I always had something flip to say. I said that I didn't know, but having been blessed with the gift, I felt obliged to use it.

Dogs give us something just as we give something to them.

I write characters and stories that move me, and I write from the heart.

It's easy to sound good. All you do is leave in the parts where you act tough and forget the parts where you get shoved around.

A dog could see your heart in your eyes, Budress told him, and dogs were drawn to our hearts.

I have these huge black foam boards on the wall, and tacked to them, I have these white punch cards with my story ideas, scenes and notes.

My fiction is almost always inspired by a character's need or desire to rise above him- or herself. No one is perfect and some of us have much adversity in our lives; it is those people who struggle to rise above their nature or background that I find the most interesting and heroic.