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" I look to find the heart and soul of people, of my characters. I look for the truth of them and the truths about life that are presented through them. "

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" I think conflict is one of the things that makes for a good story. "

" Sometimes the best reading comes just by accident. Someone talks about a book, or you're just wandering the stacks in the library, and you find a book that you love. "

" Life is so fragile, so brief. And we seemingly work so hard at trying to ignore that. "

" It is true that all mothers do things differently from their own mothers, but they don't necessarily do them better. "

" Ultimately, the less I know about what I'm doing, the better the work is. "

" You need a place to work that works for you, and you need people to understand that when you are writing, you are doing a rarefied type of brain surgery and therefore should not be subject to a million random interruptions. "

" No, I am not my mother. I am deeply, endlessly grateful for what she did and who she was, but I am a different kind of person. "

" If I don't feel like writing on a certain day, I just go to the cafe and hang around. "

" I'm the kind of person who is entertained watching someone simply be themselves, whether they're putting their children to bed or making dinner or sitting at the table reading the morning newspaper. "

" As for the notion that everything has already been said, maybe it has, but life is like meatloaf: there are so many different ways to present it. "

" I suppose writing nonfiction did prepare me for writing fiction. Whenever you write anything, you're honing your skills for writing anything else. "

" I hope to show the great worth of women. So far as I'm concerned, we're still underappreciated. "

" I think it's harder - much harder - to be a good parent than to write a book. "

" I've always felt an overwhelming need to get out what was inside. The vehicle for me was words on paper - not speech, not art, not dance, not anything else. "

" I do think that there's an art form to parenting, and I have nothing but admiration for those who do it well. "

" I like my house to feel like a place where I can just lie back and say, 'Ahhhhh, I'm home.' "

" I think the most important quality for a writer to have is empathy. "

" I always wrote as a vehicle for expression but did not try writing for publication until my mid-thirties, at which time I started writing for magazines. I wrote essays and then short stories, then moved into novels. "

" It usually takes about a year to write each book. I don't plan it that way. I don't set deadlines. If a book wants to take longer, it can. "

" As for my 'real life,' yes, I do have friends who are different from me, and I find it refreshing being around them. "

" Ideas come from life: what happens in mine, what I see happening in others', mixed with a great deal of imagination. I might see a person in a grocery store and build a whole character and life out of what's in her basket. "

" Elvis is symbolic of a lot of things, dreams coming true being one of them. "

" If I could say anything to aspiring writers, it's to keep your own counsel, first and foremost. "

" The process of writing and creating and answering that very unique call inside yourself has nothing to do with agents and sales and all that stuff. "

" Whenever I write a novel, most of the time it starts with barest slip of an idea. "

" Never try to copy other writers, and never try to have a formula. It has to come from your heart and soul. "

" I find life a mix of humor and pathos, and all my books reflect that to one degree or another. "

" I love libraries, as anyone who has a brain does. "

" Writing is, of course, a solitary occupation. But for many writers, myself included, it's through writing that we make certain vital connections. "

" No matter what you write, you need an active imagination. "