I am telling you, if you ever wanted an ego boost, leave your job and then, six months later, come back for a day. People will treat you like you're a princess.

There is something about my aura or essence, or whatever, that draws the ex-wife characters to me. I don't seek them out, but people tend to think of me for that particular archetype, or whatever you want to call it, and I don't mind it. I think there is a strength to it.

The fact is that viewers are fickle and it's rare that such a large group of people can be categorized in any type of way. There's enough content to go around, and if we stop focusing on numbers and start focusing on the quality of the project, then I think everybody - viewers and artists alike - is going to be a lot happier.

There's something sort of intrinsic in being a Southerner that doesn't go away. You can't get rid of it, but it's not something that's terribly obvious.

When I was working on my first novel, 'The Quilter's Apprentice,' I knew I wanted to write about friendship, especially women's friendship and how women use friendship to sustain themselves and nurture each other.

Positive, healthy, loving relationships in your twenties... I don't know if anyone would disagree with it: I think they're the exception, not the norm. People are either playing house really aggressively because they're scared of what an uncertain time it is, or they're avoiding commitment altogether.

If it was Europe, I just picked a country that I hadn't been to, but I didn't try to check up on what was going on in the country or anything like that. I just went and had a good time and met a lot of very nice people who are still my friends.

A lot about Congress is about forming good working relationships with people, and humor can really help you do that.