“Motherhood changes everything.”

If only men came made to order. It’s so hard to find a decent fellow.

Everything has to be clean and orderly when I sit down to write.

I don’t settle in any other area of my life when it comes to excellence, so why should I lower my standards when it comes to boys?

Those who want to know the facts, and those who want to make up a nice story to feel better.

I like it when my mother smiles. And I especially like it when I make her smile.

Maybe a first love exists to reaffirm the best parts of yourself, the choices you made when you didn’t worry about the consequences.

Ireland has never been more beautiful – the perfect setting for this story filled with humor, hope and possibility.

That’s when you know for sure somebody loves you.

If a man walks in beauty, he will create, and when he creates, he prospers.

A handwritten letter carries a lot of risk. It’s a one-sided conversation that reveals the truth of the writer.

Isn’t this the truth of any good mother? That in all of our lives.

The table is where the big decisions of the family are made and all the arguing takes place.

Love has a funny way of showing up when you aren’t looking for it and didn’t plan on it.

I’m writing novels because I found something I love because I tried it. Don’t be afraid to shake it up.

Energy has to be fed from a source. If you don’t feed the source, it dissipates entirely.

Don’t worry about bad things that haven’t happened yet. It will save you a lot of anxiety.

I’m lucky because the strongest emotion I have ever felt is being in love, and that definitely informs my writing.

If all you boast of your great art be true; Sure, willing poverty lives most in you.

A single twig breaks, but the bundle of twigs is strong.

A life of gratitude to God for being saved is far more pleasing than a life based on self-righteousness over being good.

Being legally permitted to use an alternative cancer therapy is the problem

A guitar riff played on a piano doesn’t come close to the purity of it being played on a guitar but I faked it enough to get by.

More than anything I love being on stage and performing

You look at someone like Gandhi, and he glowed. Martin Luther King glowed. Muhammad Ali glows. I think that’s from being bright all the time, and trying to be brighter.