My books are about ordinary people, like you, me, people on the street, people who really have an expectation of reasonable happiness in life, want their life to have a sense of security and predictability, who want to belong to something bigger than them, who want love and affection in their life, who want a good future for the children.

I got my Bachelor's degree in nursing and worked nine years - even taught nursing in a college - before I stopped and said to myself, 'This is not who I am. I am not really a nurse inside. I'm a writer.'

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.

You must make up your mind to the prospect of sustaining a certain measure of pain and trouble in you'r passage through life.

I leave shreds of my soul on every experience.

She was not a slowpoke grownup. She was a girl who could not wait. Life was so interesting she had to find out what happened next.