I was reading Carl Sandburg and Gwendolyn Brooks, and I'm still very, very deeply moved by Gwendolyn Brooks's life and her work.

I learned from the Macarturos. I had never been at a table with a labor organizer and a playwright and a performance artist and an anthropologist and a human rights lawyer. Usually at most gatherings, it's all writers. But suddenly I was at a table with all these different people and I learned from each of them, learned from the work they're doing, learned new ways to solve my problems.

My trainer taught me, because he's Iranian, and that's a beautiful snack [pistachios]. I have some with me, actually, in my bag. You could eat that on a plane instead of the salted nuts. And a serving size a day is the size of your hand, not the size of your head!

When we started publishing, you had to be better than good. You had to be excellent. But as long as people are reading, I don't care what they're reading.

I know there are a lot of women who are afraid of driving on highways.

Now I feel life is really short and I have to take care of things.

Some people need flowers, some people need dandelions. It's medicine, it's what you need at that time in your life.