I think in a lot of ways, writing, when you're really in there, is like being an actress because you're in somebody else's head.

The novel is never really in the first draft. The novel really happens in the revisions.

I think it's more difficult writing what it's like to be a child. You can pretend you know what it's like, but you don't really know. The only parts I can remember is that the adults were like, "Aren't they cute?" But when you're little you're looking at the other kids like they're your colleagues. They're not like, "Oh, we're all cute little kids." They're more like your office acquaintances. It's very hard to grasp the memories of what it actually was like to be a kid.

I feel like I sort of missed the eighties. At the time, we didn’t know we were having fun, which is probably the way it always is.

If you want to write about a person who isn't nice, people say, "This is a bad book. It's about somebody I couldn't stand." But that's not the point. You don't have to like a character to like a book. Most of the time, people would misjudge and say, "I didn't like the book." No, you didn't like the character. That doesn't make it any less interesting of a book. In fact, to me, it makes it more interesting.

I think powerful women don't care whether or not they're liked.

With publicity comes humiliation.