Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
My books aren't autobiographical.
Guilt is a supreme waste of time and energy.
I really try to focus on my books and readers.
My wants are simple: a job that I like and a guy whom I love.
True love is supposed to make you into a better person-uplift you.
I didn't drink in high school, and neither did any of my boyfriends.
His loyalty, so fierce and unwavering, makes my eyes water and heart ache.
Writing a teen character is something I wanted to try again for a long time!
I think exercise is critical to my writing and an essential way to recharge.
A son is a son 'til he gets a wife, but a daughter is a daughter all her life.
I try to write about real women, real people - in other words flawed characters.
I feel a great connection with my readers and would never want to disappoint them.
I like to match what I wear to my book jacket - it's a little bit cheesy, but it's my thing.
I write about messy relationships, and they put pastel covers on them, but I can't complain.
It always takes two. For relationships to work, for them to break apart, for them to be fixed.
My favorite movie of all-time is 'Stand By Me,' and I re-read my favorite young adult books often.
I have unabashed Bieber Fever and routinely Google 'Justin and Selena.' They are so cute together.
Buried beneath disappointment and fear, anger and pride, I just might find it in my heart to forgive.
I try to have something in common with my protagonists, especially when I'm writing in the first person.
I have always been drawn to coming-of-age stories and books and movies featuring compelling young characters.
I've been obsessed with the Kennedys since I was a child, and Bobby Kennedy is, hands down, my favorite among them.
For true downtime, I enjoy going for light runs, having drinks with friends and going to the movies with my husband.
'Something Borrowed' was initially titled 'Rolling the Dice,' but my editor said it sounded like a men's gambling memoir.
Well, shoes, bags and clutches are usually my big weaknesses - my husband always laughs when I call them 'investment pieces.'
The best thing about being an author is writing stories and having people - strangers all over the world - connect with them.
I'm a huge Elizabeth Berg fan. Her novels are always charming, thoughtful, and filled with lively, three-dimensional characters.
I miss him in so many ways, but right now I miss him in the way you always miss someone when you're single among a room full of couples.
I think it always feels riskier and scarier to go after something you really love and want because the rejection and failure hurts more.
I try to recognize that there is no such thing as having it all - and it's impossible to be perfect. You just have to let certain things go.
I did read all my old diaries and was quite surprised by the overwhelming melancholic tone. I remember things being rosier than they really were.
Everyone wants to belong, or be a part of something bigger than themselves, but it's important to follow your heart and be true to yourself in the process.
Often I feel that projects overwhelm us when we look at how many hours are involved until completion. But just getting started is usually not that difficult.
Like the rest of the planet, I'm absolutely dying to see Baz Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby' and am thrilled that Leonardo DiCaprio was cast in it - he's perfect.
Life is about the gray areas. Things are seldom black and white, even when we wish they were and think they should be, and I like exploring this nuanced terrain.
Evident in every small act of kindness, it was love as a verb. Love that made me feel more complete than I had ever felt in my glamorous, Jimmy Choo filled past.
I've always been intrigued by the power of secrets. When is it justifiable to keep them from the ones we love? And does keeping them irrevocably change who we are?
My books are all relationship-focused, so much of my inspiration comes from my own relationships and the issues and concerns that arise among my friends and family.
I think of how each person in a marriage owes it to the other to find individual happiness, even in a shared life. That this is the only way to grow together, instead of apart.
A theme in a lot of my books - and in my own life - is making choices that you feel you should make, or what society wants you to make, as opposed to what is truly right for you.
I find flawed characters much more interesting than perfect ones and enjoy the challenge of making readers root for them in spite of their unsympathetic path and destructive choices.
For an interesting nonfiction read, I really enjoyed 'Quiet' by Susan Cain. I read it with my husband, who is a true introvert, whereas I am an introvert masquerading as an extrovert.
I have increasingly steeled myself to criticism, but it still can sting, especially when you feel that it is unfair - or that they are judging my book by its cover or by preconceived notions.
I never outline my novels before I write. I do have a vague sense of beginning, middle, and end at the outset of each book, but for me, writing has always been a very character-driven process.
It's a funny thing - when I'm crazed with work, spending time with my children relaxes me. Yet, at the end of a long weekend with them, the very thing I need to relax is a little work and time away from them!
I aim for four workouts a week. I work out with a trainer once a week. Then, I take a circuit class twice a week. The fourth workout is random, depending on what I'm in the mood for - either a run, a spin class, or yoga.
I was actually born in Baltimore! Although I moved away when I was quite young and consider Chicago to be my hometown, Baltimore is sentimental to me, and I still keep in touch with family friends I knew as a little girl.
It was about grace, she decides, something that has been missing from her own life. ... She wants to be the kind of person who can bestow unearned kindness on another, replace bitterness with empathy, forgive only for the sake of forgiving.
Inevitably I draw on my own relationships when I write, so if I'm writing about a fight between a husband and his wife, of course I'm going to think about a recent fight with my husband. Or if I'm writing about sisters, of course I'm going to think about my sister.
Darcy, the heroine of 'Something Blue,' is quite shallow and opinionated. At one point, she commented that she dislikes 'gingers,' i.e., men with red hair. I received several emails from fiery redheads who said they were offended by 'my' comments. I had to remind them that it is fiction.
The worst thing about this particular end (of my youth) and the beginning (of middle age) is that for the first time in my life, I realize I don't know where I'm going. My wants are simple: a job that I like and a guy whom I love. And on the eve of my thirteth, I must face that I am 0 for 2.