Writer

'Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Case,' 'The Secret of the Old Clock,' 'Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret,' 'Flowers in the Attic,' 'Gone With the Wind' - these are the books that defined my childhood. They thrilled me. They made me feel like I wasn't alone in the world.

Like every Southern writer, I thought that I needed to write the next 'Gone With the Wind.'

Even if you live in a big city, everybody lives in a small town. We identify ourselves by our neighborhoods - 'I live in the Village, or in Chelsea.'

In the South, we drink the Bible with our mother's milk.

As voters and taxpayers, we must demand that our local governments properly prioritize libraries. As citizens, we must invest in our library down the street so that the generations served by that library grow up to be adults who contribute not just to their local communities but to the world.

I never felt isolated; I just liked being alone. I think that some people are good at being alone, and some people aren't, and as a child, I really liked it.

I hate to badmouth any book or writer, because I know how it feels to be on the other end of that.

I didn't want to spend the next thirty years writing about bad things happening in the same small town - not least of all because people would begin to wonder why anyone still lives there!

I grew up reading thrillers. Honestly, I was always drawn to the very detailed ones like Patricia Cornwell. I love details.

My sister lived in England for a while when I was 12, and I came to visit her, and I spent most of the time in her flat reading.

I think some people are good at being alone, and some people aren't, and as a child, I really liked it.

I never want to write a book just to tell a story. There is always something deeper going on.

A book I would take with me to a desert island is 'Paradise Lost,' which I studied in college and hated so much by the end of the class that I never wanted to see it again.

Reading is exercise for our brains in the guise of pleasure. Books give us insight into other people, other cultures. They make us laugh. They make us think. If they are really good, they make us believe that we are better for having read them.

I could type in a closet and be fine. It's just a matter of cocooning myself. Just me and the story.

I don't get hung up a lot on angst.

I've never purposefully based a character on any one person I know, but I'm certain there are amalgamations that exist.

Flannery O'Connor was a revelation for me. When I read her, I was very young, and I didn't understand what she was doing. I didn't see any of the Catholicism or any of the social stuff.

When you write as a woman, there's this feeling there's going to be a softness.

As a writer, I've always felt it's my job to be extremely careful when writing about victims, especially women.