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" If I'm on the road for Random House, I'm presenting a book with the hope people will buy it. "

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" 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. "

" 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. "

" When I wrote 'Home Safe,' I wanted to look at a number of things: the mystery and joy and pain of creativity. What happens when a vital safety net is suddenly removed. The difficulty some people have in growing up. The way a deep love can be as crippling as it is satisfying. But mostly, I wanted to look at the mother-daughter relationship. "

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

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

" People don't take you seriously, so you have to take yourself seriously. "

" Writing was always a release for me, a great joy. It wasn't work. "

" The world of literature is so rich and so enriching. The value is inestimable of what reading does for you. "

" I don't really like questions about the writing process, because the truth is I don't know how I write. "

" Every book is its own experience, the writing of it. "

" You should not pay too much attention to what anyone tells you, including me. It's very, very important to follow your own map. "

" I don't have a medicine cabinet. "

" 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. "

" In this wide world, I don't think that there's just one person for any of us. I think we look until we find one that feels right, and oftentimes, it works out just fine. "

" 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. "

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

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

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

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

" When I write, I operate as a writer and a reader both - I never know what's going to happen. "

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

" I never meant to write about the experience of losing a good friend to breast cancer when I was going through it. But after it was over, I realized that although something deeply sad had happened, something truly beautiful also had. "

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

" I know that sometimes it happens that a novelist is embarrassed about their early works. For me, it's the opposite: I believe 'Durable Goods' is the best thing I've written. "

" I'm nuts about the South - the people, the language, the food, the land, the stories and writers that come from there - but it's hard to know whether I'll use it as a location again. "

" I love to listen to people talk, especially when they're being really honest and they're not trying to sound any particular way. "

" My mom used to keep all her Christmas cards in a basket bedecked with red ribbon, and I loved to look at them all and read all the letters. "

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

" 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. "