I was not big on playing house. I preferred make-believe that revolved around adventure, featuring pirates and knights. I was also domineering, impatient, relentlessly verbal, and, as an only child, often baffled by the mores of other kids.

The 10 or 20 minutes I was somebody's mother were black magic; there is no adventure I would have traded them for.

I think it would be difficult to argue that I'm a net-negative for womankind. I've tried pretty hard to bring in unusual female voices and perspectives. Not just young women and not just white women, either. I don't know that I'm the best target for improvement. I don't know that I'm the problem.

I decided early that I would be a writer when I grew up. That, I thought, was the profession that went with the kind of woman I wanted to become: one who is free to do whatever she chooses.

I love my dad. There is no doubt about that. He is a wonderful man and a good person. Like many father/son relationships, we have our struggles, our misunderstandings, and our miscommunications. We are very different people, but also very similar at the same time.

I do not want a husband who honours me as a queen, if he does not love me as a woman.

There is no shame in my saying that we all want to be loved by someone. As I look back over my life in romance, I don't feel I've ever had that.

A marriage doesn't have to be perfect, but you can be perfect for each other.