"Listen to advice. You don't know how many writer's conferences I've taught at where at least half the audience fights all the conventions of the field."

"The Internet makes it possible for people like me to live the way I do now. Without it, I'd have to be in New York or some other city. I think the Internet is the greatest invention in history after antibiotics."

"I was the executive editor on a little magazine called Greek Accent, whose only claim to fame is that its art director went on to be the art director of Discover for many years."

"I really hate those books where the murderer turns out to be somebody you never heard of who pops up in the last chapter."

"My husband used to take care of the business part of this, and after he died I found I wasn't really any good at it. I hate remembering who owes me what and bugging them if they haven't paid me."

"Everybody is a True Believer. Everybody has a little nugget they're convinced of that is the opposite of the nugget on the other side. And they're convinced it's fact."

"I tend to come up with people more than situations - most of my books start with a character."

"I'd like to write a history, maybe of the Reformation."

"I don't make my own schedule - it's constructed around my sons' school schedules."

"Nobody in real life ever takes me seriously."

"I've been a teacher at the college level, in composition mostly, and I've been an editor on magazines."