My books are always about somebody who is taken from aloneness and isolation - often elevated loneliness - to community. It may be a denigrated community that is filthy and poor, but they are not alone; they are with people.

Most people would rather give than get affection.

You know people talk about federal money as if it falls from heaven. You know we thank heaven for it, but it came out of people's pockets - and I've driven all over Washington, D.C., I cannot find the money tree.

I could not sit down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life.

We all know that there are these exemplars who can take the toughest students, and they'll teach them two-and-a-half years of math in a single year.