It's not that marriage itself is bad; it's the people we marry who give it a bad name.

Don't worry about how pretty (the story) sounds, how lilting it is, and the imagery, and the metaphor, all that. Most readers don't care. It's the people in your book that matter.

Too many of us are hung up on what we don't have, can't have, or won't ever have. We spend too much energy being down, when we could use that same energy – if not less of it – doing, or at least trying to do, some of the things we really want to do.

Back then I confused passions and orgasms with love. It look me years to realize the two weren't synonymous.

I can't stand that - those women in 'Waiting to Exhale' now. I can't stand them. But that's because I'm 53 and not 33. But what they were experiencing at 33, I identified with it.

Folks want to glow, to leave their worries and dead skin behind.

Writing is my shelter. I don't hide behind the words; I use them to dig inside my heart to find the truth.