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" When you put your characters in a dire situation, they often do things that surprise even you, so you have to go back and revise your original conception of who they are. "

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" Our house was awash in books, and my mother doled out her favorites like they were special treats - which they were. "

" A man notices a woman's figure when she walks in a room. Women have eight million words for blue; a man says dark blue or light blue. "

" I'm sharpest early, and though I can rewrite any time, day or night, I'm useless after noon when it comes to writing first draft. "

" The book that made a lasting impression was the one my mother gave each of us when she decided we were ready for our first 'adult novel,' Lucy Maud Montgomery's 'The Blue Castle.' "

" For me, a good YA novel is the best kind of comfort food. "

" Phoebe Wolkind Ephron cracked wise like Dorothy Parker and looked like Katharine Hepburn. "

" I'd long wanted to write about that moment when a woman steps off the career track to have her first child. For me, that was a scary time. "

" My rule of writing is that no one can do what you can do, so jealousy or competitiveness are pointless. I am always happy when one of my sisters has a book published that I get to read. "

" As we got older, we grew comfortable in roles that met our parents' expectations. Nora was the smart one. Delia, the comedian. I was the pretty, obedient one. And Amy was the adventurous mischief-maker. "

" I don't think anybody in my family meant there to be any pressure for me to write. But our parents were incredibly verbal and wrote for a living. The house was full of books, and we all grew up steeped in language. I mean, our mother recited poetry at the dinner table. "

" Even though I got a late start, first publishing an essay when I was 50 years old, I've since written eight suspense novels. "

" I'm someone who sits at a computer eight hours a day, and I look in that pinhole camera at the top of my screen and think, 'Someone could be watching me.' "

" When something happens far back in the past, people often can't recall exact details. Blame depends upon point of view. There may be a villain, but reality is frustrating because it's often ambiguous. "

" I haven't given any thought to collaborating with my sisters. It would be great fun. My daughter Molly is a wonderful writer - someday I'd love to collaborate with her. "

" I was an outsider, never quite part of what was going on, always looking in. It turned out to be great preparation for writing fiction. "

" Outlining is like putting on training wheels. It gives me the courage to write, but we always go off the outline. "