I love Japanese design and fabrics. I also love people who make clothes for mass consumption but do it well and cleverly.

Dog parks are more cliquish than any other human gathering with the possible exception of seventh grade. Deal with it.

There's a marvelous sense of mastery that comes with writing a sentence that sounds exactly as you want it to. It's like trying to write a song, making tiny tweaks, reading it out loud, shifting things to make it sound a certain way... Sometimes it feels like digging out of a hole, but sometimes it feels like flying. When it's working and the rhythm's there, it does feel like magic to me.

You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it.

I love tearing things out of the ground. I love digging and discarding. I love pruning. In fact, I love pruning so much that I once gave myself carpal-tunnel syndrome because I attacked a trumpet vine with so much dedication.

When my son was born, and after a day of lying-in I was told that I could leave the hospital and take him home, I burst into tears. It wasn't the emotion of the moment: it was shock and horror.

I love Japanese design and fabrics. I also love people who make clothes for mass consumption but do it well and cleverly.