"Ours was not a political household, when I was growing up."

"It's always obvious to me when someone is looking at me with an idea of who I am and hoping that that's the person I'm going to be. No matter how subtle it is, it's there, and you want to give them who they really want. But it ain't me."

"Some people with awful cards can be successful because of how they deal with the tragedies they're handed, and that seems courageous to me."

"I can write for a long time on one novel and not get tired."

"I notice when I'm on these trips, I read like mad. It's the only thing that seems to center me, bring me back to remembering who I am. Or forgetting who I am!"

"My success is not who I am."

"People who keep stiff upper lips find that it's damn hard to smile."

"With my friends, I don't feel pressure to be someone other than who I am."

"It's true that every day away from work requires two more days to get back into it."

"I'm glad I'm successful at it, because it's allowed me to live very well financially, and give my kids a lot of things. It's enabled me to do stuff that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do. But it's not who I am."

"Sometimes you are being interviewed by someone and you think, if I knew this person they'd be my best friend. Other times you're being interviewed by a complete jerk."

"I think living the blessed life is the luck of the draw."