I always think that in a big city, anything is possible, including reinventing yourself.

Open adoption, when it works, is fabulous. But when it goes wrong, it's so traumatizing for everybody.

Writers are magpies, and we collect details about people and we use them for fictional characters.

I had a nervous breakdown at 17 when my first love left me, and he was a typical bad boy, albeit a charismatic one, with a string of broken hearts trailing behind him.

Do what you love. Live fearlessly and take risks. Don't take no for an answer from anyone - go ahead and prove the naysayers wrong. Believe that anything can be possible.

Everyone thinks that a new place or a new identity will jumpstart a new life.

I was a bookworm who aced every test - until third grade, when my teacher handed out a pop quiz about Jesus and the Apostles.

L.A. is a place people come to for all sorts of reasons, often to reinvent themselves, and that fascinates me.

My first husband was a serial cheater.

Never be with anyone you couldn't imagine yourself being able to live without.

People love stories. They need stories.

I have a very positive attitude in life. My insecurity, fear and need to know about tomorrow has fortunately eased. What is going to happen will happen anyway. So why break my head over it?

I want to know all God's thoughts.

Soldiers' graves are the greatest preachers of peace.

I was too ignorant to realize, "Oh, this will be difficult."

I make records so I can buy art.

I am not a writer except when I write.

I had Micah Richards as a player at 16 and he was a man then. What is he now? A bigger man, probably

Everyone keeps asking me: 'Are you going to win?' How on earth do you know if you're going to win or not?

My parents were horrified when I told them I wanted to be an author.

Nobody gets a nervous breakdown or a heart attack from selling kerosene to gentle country folk from the back of a tanker in Somerset.