I think humor is like a shield that lets you get as close to the sad sad flame as possible - far closer, oftentimes, than drama..

For many years I wrote nothing but "I will not sleep with Steve Almond" over and over again, page after page à la Jack Torrance in The Shining. Final….

You know how some people are unlucky in love? I was always unlucky in exercise. I'd get into a relationship with a workout program or guru, we'd go s….

With surgical insight, Inside Madeline delves into the most complex female territory imaginable and dissects until every honest bone is revealed. Bom….

I really want readers to put themselves into the shoes of each character. So the opening lines are an orienting technique: this is where you are, thi….

I'm a big people pleaser; I had a very awkward adolescence. Part of me is still that person who wants everyone to like me..

My writing circle isn't too full of people who fall into the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Tuesdays With Morrie" category..

Las Vegas is incredible. Either you love it or you're a classy person with morals. I fall into the former category. It's definitely bled into my writ….

Luckily I'm on prescription drugs that prevent me from worrying about anything too much..

exercise will never be my lover. Or even my friend. For me, a workout is more like an annoying coworker I have to see a few times a week..

It was just such a complete shock to turn on the news one day and see someone that you know, someone you have passed in the halls of your high school….

I don't consider myself attractive. I'm an academic, and in academia, people will write you off if you look younger..

You want to do all of these preventative things to make sure you always look as young as possible, you don't want to look your age. Looking young and….

I think what tends to embarrass me most is how much I struggle at the little things that seem to come so easily to most people, mainly involving rout….

I think that in our culture there is this message to males that any time you can have sex with an attractive female, you should do it. But for female….

My poor family. I try to protect them from my work. My parents are very religious, and my brother and sister are very normal. We have an understandin….

During my MFA, I was lucky to be surrounded by a really supportive group of peers. And now I get feedback pretty exclusively from freaks only..

If you're a beautiful Caucasian woman, and you commit a heinous crime, it's like people don't want to acknowledge the reality of your actions..

Keeping a diary is advanced-level living. I spend way too much time trying not to curl up in the corner like a giant fetus & weep to keep a diary..

I've worked hard on my doctorate, and I want to be acknowledged for that. But I also wanted to comment on this message that women get that the most i….

I've seen men in $5,000 suits urinate in public fountains here. Las Vegas is the best place on earth..