I envy people who can think, 'No, I'm not going to work today' when they have a huge pile of deadlines stacking up.

People tend to view history as if it were another planet and think the modern world was invented in 1963. I don't agree.

Sometimes you watch one of your favorite shows from 20 years ago and you think, 'I'm loving this, but golly, it's going at the speed of a snail.'

I think I have a very detailed sense of observation. I am interested in the details of people's lives and what information these details give.

My own belief is that most people are trying to do their best. It doesn't mean they have no nasty side, or that they don't have a bad temper, or that they have never done anything they feel ashamed of. But fiction operates on people waking up trying to be horrible, and I don't think most people are trying to be horrible.

I love 'Sex and the City;' I think I've seen every episode.

I don't think I'm an unkind person, I don't think my books are unkind, and I don't think my readers are unkind.

I think other people's depression is frightfully dreary, don't you?

There are many nations that have perfected a particular room. You know, you have the French drawing-room, the Austrian ball room, the German dining room, and I think the library is a room the English get right.