“But some characters in books are really real--Jane Austen's are; and I know those five Bennets at the opening of Pride and Prejudice, simply waiting to raven the young men at Netherfield Park, are ...”

“You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are.”

“A novel must show how the world truly is, how characters genuinely think, how events actually occur. A novel should somehow reveal the true source of our actions.”

“Perhaps this is what Henry James meant when he talked about the irresponsibility of characters. Characters are irresponsible, art is irresponsible when compared to life, because it is first and for...”

“She had a way about her that spoke of homemade bread, and caring for people, and the kind of patience that women have when they help a ewe birth a lamb, or stay up in the night with a baby calf baw...”

“The reality I submerse myself in when writing, is far greater than the physical reality surrounding me at work!”

“Have ye ever known a female who wasna a bit of a witch in her own sweet way?”

“What the feckin' hell is PMS, I'd like to ken?""Petty Male Shit," she yelled.”

“I think...I shall call ye Beauty, for I shall be yer beast.”