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" I think titles are extremely important for novels: They can set the tone, tip you off, serve as shorthand for what the essential contents are. "

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

" I think writers are born, not made. "

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

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" We're not just writers; we're readers probably more than anything else. That's how you learn how to write and how you learn to appreciate good writing: by reading. "

" I loved the 'Three Stooges.' I still do - nyuk, nyuk. "

" I remember, as a child, wanting all the time to buy my parents presents. I stood around forlornly in fancy shops, unable to afford a single thing. "

" One of the great pleasures in writing 'The Dream Lover' was learning about some of the real people who populated George Sand's life. What a cast of characters! And what a pleasure to recreate them upon the page! "

" If I could visit dead authors, I'd head right over to E. B. White, though I'm so in awe of him I'd probably just sit at his feet and weep. He's the master of clarity, of understated humor, of palatable political conviction. "

" The process is different for every book, but there are similarities. I always draw from the inside out. I don't plot them ahead of time, and I'm always surprised by things that happen in my books. "

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

" I have not been in a book club where there were any men, and I have not, in fact, heard of book groups that were mixed. "

" When I write a book, I don't have an idea of what I'm doing. I just go where it leads. "

" With 'Durable Goods,' I meant only to write about being an army brat. What emerged was a story about compassion - the need for it, the expression of it. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" I think Chicago is the best city in the country, hands down, but I don't like the winter there anymore. "

" My favorite splurge is homemade chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream or a Sausage McMuffin with egg or scalloped potatoes or turkey yanked right off the carcass and dipped in gravy or See's chocolate. "

" In writing a novel about George Sand, I hoped to present her as the talented, beguiling, complicated and occasionally infuriating woman I think she was, but I hope, too, that readers will enjoy the people she surrounded herself with. "

" It is a happy day when I am asked to publicly recommend a book. It is also a dilemma. When I consider all the books I have loved and depended upon and profited from, how can I pick just one? "

" 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. "

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

" I don't have a medicine cabinet. "

" We're such imperfect beings. I think that's more often the case than not. "

" Nurses don't get paid very much. It didn't take long to realize that I could make more as a writer. I loved nursing, but I loved writing more. "

" I can't decide if I'm a hippie or elegant older woman, a farmer's wife, a crazy person. "

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