My family can always tell when I'm well into a novel because the meals get very crummy.

II would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them -- without a though about publication -- and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside.

I remember leaving the hospital - thinking, 'Wait, are they going to let me just walk off with him? I don't know beans about babies! I don't have a license to do this.' [We're] just amateurs.

She thinks the people she loves are better than they really are, and so then she starts changing things around to suit her view of them

None of my own experiences ever finds its way into my work. However, the stages of my life -- motherhood, middle age, etc. -- often influence my subject matter.

Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!