I certainly know about the oppression and prejudices of being black and a woman and from the South.

Some of my first memories are waiting for my father to finish his day at work in the University of Washington library and come out and jump in the car with my mom and myself, and we'd be sitting there reading books, and then we'd go home.

I used to be an editor and I was editing young adult series. I didn't really like the books that I was reading, so I decided that I would write a book about something I'd want to read if I was 16. It turned into a Cinderella story... I developed a proposal and the characters of 'Gossip Girl' for my job.

All I can say is Mike Lee is an embarrassment to the state of Utah. He's been a tremendous embarrassment to our family, to our state, to our country to have him as a U.S. senator.

I don't like the word 'balance.' To me, that somehow conjures up conflict between work and family... as long as we think of these things as conflicting, we will never have happiness. True happiness comes from integration... of work, family, self, community.