There have been years where I've had to take a real job and I wrote during slow times and lunches. I think never forgetting how lucky I am to be able to do something I love has really fueled me.

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.

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

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.

I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things.

I inherited this longing. I was addicted to it. And so I was at home with those who wanted and never had enough. I was at home in the places that could never be. The places found only in dreams.

I love road trips! My husband and I love that. We bought a truck with a bench seat so we could put the dog in the middle.

The Lord expects you to do some things for yourself.

After three albums, you should shoot your producer

Everything is but a dream!

I never said I was a 'good girl.' I'm not a bad girl.

Even on education, his one accomplishment, the Leave No Child Behind Act, and he has left it unfunded.

Enlightenment, don't know what it is. It's up to you, the way you think.

To see a young couple loving each other is no wonder; but to see an old couple loving each other is the best sight of all.