I adore the work of Stephen Sondheim. I like musicales in general. They make surprisingly great running tapes.

Children can be happy when their parents are miserable. But a parent is never happier than her unhappiest child.

I begin each book with a challenge to myself.

I like to see writers reach bigger and bigger audiences, and stand-alones have allowed some of them to do just that.

It's very different to have this kid that I'm truly responsible for.

There's always time to read. Don't trust a writer who doesn't read. It's like eating food prepared by a cook who doesn't eat.

In fact, I think every book I've written has been inspired by a real event.

My family is really, really Southern - I had two uncle Bubbas, and grandparents that we called Big Mama and Big Daddy.

There was no protection, no quota system when it came to luck. It was like that moment in math when a child learns that the odds of heads or tails is always one-in-two, no matter how many times one has flipped the coin and gotten heads. Every flip, the odds are the same. Every day, you could be unlucky all over again.

But you were a goody-goody, you said.' 'Even goody-goodies think about such things. In fact, I would say that's what defines us. We're always thinking about the things we don't dare do, figuring out where the lines are drawn, so we can go right up to the edge of things, then plead innocence on the ground of a technicality.

how magnanimous was a gesture if one were constantly aware of its magnanimity?

it's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart.

Reading was not a fallback position for her but an ideal state of being.

Reporting is pretty vital to me. It keeps me connected to the world. A 40-hour-per-week day job may be less feasible as time goes on.

I'm a morning person, which is a hideous thing to be. No one likes morning people, not even other morning people.

I'm at the age most people are sending their kids off to college.