When I was a child I wanted to be a vet. I'd come home with ""lost"" kittens and dogs. My mother would tell me to put them back.

Although some people think I am a romantic novelist I have always thought of myself as a rather gritty radical historian.

I am in the interesting position of being sometimes skimmed by the critics and called literature and sometimes called historical fiction.

Being a stepmother has worked out very well for me. I love my stepchildren very much.

I couldn't put my hand on my heart and say I think that being in a relationship is a natural state for a human being.

In a single lifetime, roughly from 1865 to 1930, one finds the pioneering and patterning works of modern fantasy, science fiction, children's literature and detective fiction, of modern adventure, mystery and romance.

I love whiskey, and I'm a big fan of 'Mad Men,' so anything that Don Draper does, I like to do. But I want Don Draper to get back to where he was in the first season. I like him married and gallivanting around.

I guess because the shows were activist in their own way - the marriage of my public activism and my career activism, you know - people understand me very well. They also understand there's a very strong bipartisan part in all of this.