My entire life has been centered around my writing, and by that I mean finding the time to write.

My only relief is to sleep. When I'm sleeping, I'm not sad, I'm not angry, I'm not lonely, I'm nothing.

Sometimes you have to say, 'Today's just not my day.

To be honest, I want readers to be wrung out. As a novelist, I don't have a political agenda or specific philosophy; I'm trying to create a gut-wrenching, intimate, memorable experience.

Part of what compels me to write day after day, chapter after chapter, is the discovery process, seeing the characters evolve as I get deeper and deeper into the story.

What I like to do and what I have to do are two separate things. I like to read, swim, watch TV, spend time with my family. But I have to work, so I do that.

To be perfectly frank: I don't write women's fiction. I write intimate, gritty, realistic, character-driven fiction that happens to be thrown into the women's fiction category.

I think there's an unnatural amount of social pressure on women, particularly mothers, to conform to certain standards of behavior, particularly in regard to our children.

I've always been a writer who tackles complex themes and risky subjects - I write about the things that people think but never say aloud.

I love it, I hate it, it's ecstasy when I'm writing well, it's despair when I'm not. I wouldn't wish this life on anyone, nor would I, could I, ever give it up.

I hope I'll keep people up at night, unable to stop turning pages. That's my goal: exhausted, emotionally drained readers who can't stop crying.

Speaking English well could open a window of personal and professional opportunities but having great knowledge of business English can give you the edge in becoming indispensable.

Please open please if there's any justice in this world.

There is no greater solitude than that of the samurai unless it is that of the tiger in the jungle... Perhaps...

Some call it schizophrenia, I call it a career

I gave him my heart, and he took and pinched it to death; and flung it back to me. People feel with their hearts, Ellen, and since he has destroyed mine, I have not power to feel for him.

The ability of the market to serve society gas been and is continually being undermined by the attacks levelled by its ideological opponents.

We got dreams and we got the right to chase 'em, Look at the nation, that's a crooked smile braces couldn't even straighten.

Chicago will give you a chance. The sporting spirit is the spirit of Chicago.

That a majority of women do not wish for any important change in their social and civil condition, merely proves that they are the unreflecting slaves of custom.

Go practice if you please with men and women: leave a child alone for Christ's particular love's sake!