Few writers are willing to admit writing is autobiographical.

Pay attention to the things that agitate you. It will tell you a lot about yourself.

happiness aint got no Ph.D. or no certain amount of zeroes behind it!

It's amazing how we can make ourselves believe what we want to.

I like to think of what happens to characters in good novels and stories as knots--things keep knotting up. And by the end of the story--readers see an unknotting of sorts. Not what you expect, not the easy answers you get on TV, not wash and wear philosophies, but a reproduction of believable, emotional experiences.

I remember the day I turned thirty. I was getting out of the shower and I stood in front of the mirror and stared at myself for a long time. I examined every inch of my body and appreciated the fact that I finally looked like a grown woman. I also assumed that this was how I was going to look for the rest of my life. The way I saw it, I was never going to age; I'd just look up one day and be old.

Good parents have children who do terrible things and vice-versa.