I made the choice long ago to write about real life. And life is both serious and funny.

Pistachio nuts, the red ones, cure any problem.

When my father would yell at me, I told myself someday I'd use it in a book.

I want to keep meeting new people, enlarging my circle of friends. I have great friends now... really good people. But I'm always ready for what comes next

Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don't forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a story that tells the truth.

Normally, I name my characters after famous comedians.

My father was a very unhappy person, very sarcastic, and my mother was very nervous and worried about what people thought. They weren't monsters, but it wasn't a good childhood.

I'm very lucky. I'm very fortunate that my books have never gone out of print - none of them

We spend our whole lives recovering from high school.

Sometimes it's easier to show than it is to tell

Mistakes are growth, and we learn not to do it again. But it doesn't make you a terrible person. That's important to me.

And enigmatic smile is worth ten pages of dialog.

Nicolas Cage is the best for taking the role of character Joker. He is pretty damn good at jokes!

I don't have cable. I just never watched a lot of TV.

[on pop idol Donny Osmond] He has Van Gogh's ear for music.

My aim is to achieve sustainable change, not just make a cute little makeover.

For pale and trembling anger rushes in With faltering speech, and eyes that wildly stare, Fierce as the tiger, madder than the seas, Desperate and armed with more than human strength.

I haven't thought about making a music film, but if I did, that would be a very interesting idea.

She entered a state where prayer and poetry became one and the everyday world seemed full of holiness and significance.

Don't worry whether or not I am now happy. Today is only chapter one, we have yet to write a book.

Divisiveness is not good for the people.