Reading was my escape growing up in Ohio. Both of my parents lost their jobs when I was a teen, and it was hard. But I always had my books. Reading gave me a way of living different lives.

I have such admiration and respect for the military and military families.

The worst job I ever had was working in the call center of an electric company. I sat in a tiny cubicle getting yelled at every day so I could earn minimum wage.

Just for me - obviously, not all writers think this - but for me, I feel like seeing my book in Target and Barnes & Noble is pretty successful.

There was a lot of hype about social media in President Obama's first campaign. It was important, but it wasn't as important as I think people let on.

The idea of the Internet as sort of open and democratic and free and with no hierarchy, the libertarian beginnings as it were, with peer-to-peer networks... I'd sort of like for everyone to just admit that we're beyond that now.

The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn't think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential.

It really pisses me off when people look at women who are older and are not in a relationship as somehow sad or missing something, because they certainly don't look at men that way.