I've spent a lot of time in prisons, first doing legal work and later, teaching.

Actually, you’re not famous at all. Maybe you’ll get some traction after you’re dead?

I revise and revise and revise. I'm not even sure "revise" is the right word. I work a story almost to death before it's done.

I think anything we do - eating, walking down the street, online shopping - gives you another perspective on writing stories.

I sometimes wonder if our memories are a myth. We think we remember, but we are remembering the story and not the actual event?

I agree with the Lev Tolstoy quote completely, but I also feel like there's more to it. What is a happy family and an unhappy family? We're probably both of those things at the same time.

A stellar, fully-realized collection of stories... grounded, wonderfully, in the river valleys of western Maine. You come away not only understanding a place but the soul of its people.

If a novel or a story works, you don't stop thinking about it; it doesn't truly end.

I have a friend who teaches yoga (or is it pilates?), and she said that I don't seem to live in the moment. And I said, "Exactly!" I'd go nuts if I lived in the moment.

I think some writers should wait for something to say.

I've spent so many years living in one place and imaging another.

And the fight for who we are, for who we hope to become, has only begun.

Prof. Gerd Gleixner said “ Lailah recommend that you work every morning on the dissertation in order to meet the deadline. There are only 4 weeks .

I really fall in love with my characters, even the bad ones. I love getting together with them. They tell me what to do; they take me on a wild and wonderful trip.

Janie. Does not like. To be called. Buffy.

The web as a platform is the most powerful platform we have ever seen.

Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift!

There is a secret hippie within me.

The past and future / Are conquered, and reconciled.

I was never interested in what everybody else was interested in. I was very interiorized. I always felt kind of sad.

I am a fangirl of talent, so to see someone slaying the competition doing what I'd love to do, that's inspiring to me.