James Patterson has a way with female characters. He understands women in a way that a lot of male writers don't.

Everybody has their challenges; I couldn't say that we have more challenges than other people, they're just different.

Michael and I had great role models. Though his father has passed away, his parents had an amazingly strong marriage, as do mine. Both weathered really tough times. For us it has been normal to stay together through difficulties. We grew up witnessing that firsthand.

My family absolutely comes first, and I don't mean that in a Pollyanna way. It's the focus of my life because it's what makes me happy.

Romantic love is painful.

I married somebody who likes the way I look. If I changed my hair every year, and I reinvented myself in time-honoured pop fashion, I think understandably the person I'm married to would grow slightly sick of me.

Yes, the marriage proposal was shot. Michael excluded the dialogue from the final edit.

Maggie is my sister-in-law, married to my brother David. She is a defense attorney who devotes 25 percent of her practice to pro bono wrongful-incarceration cases.