In your 40s, you shed those who bring you down and surround yourself with the most positive people you know.

I have watched Occupy Wall Street mostly from the sidelines.

When does an object become a symbol? All I know is you cannot force it.

When I was growing up in Chicago, my family and I used to go to a local chain, Hackney’s, for burgers and their French fried onion loaf. I probably haven’t been to one in 25...

I’ve always been an old soul.

Most of my writer friends are women, and they’re all extremely talented, so of course I think the state of contemporary fiction for women is pretty great. Which is to say there is a ton...

I know the bestseller ‘Gone Girl’ doesn’t need an ounce of support from me, but that book was as sharp and witty as they come.

No matter how much money I made from writing, I’d keep the bookstore job.

In addition to public housing, South Williamsburg is home to shabby artists’ lofts like mine, apartments of Hasidic Jews, and one extremely tall, high-priced condo.

I think it’s nearly impossible to write something fictional without having it be about yourself in some way or another.

When we are young – or even 32 – we often say ‘yes’ to everything because we’re worried that we won’t know what we’ll like if we don’t try it.

Young adult novels don’t shy away from the discussion of weight issues, and ‘Blubber,’ the tale of an overweight, not-so-sympathetic fifth-grader bullied by her peers, is a refreshing take.

It’s good to pass on stories.

You write a book, and after 50 pages you think it’s about one thing, and then you write another hundred and you realize it’s about something else, and then by the time you’re done, you...

In ‘The Odyssey,’ every feast is extremely ritualized; high-status individuals even get a better cut of meat.

People are branded as either ‘fat’ or ‘skinny’ from an early age. You sort of never shake it, even if you end up losing weight.

I actually didn’t grow up in a household that loved Chinese food particularly, and it’s not really my go-to food or anything… We were more a pizza family, being from the Chicago area and all.

I think when you first start out, you’re writing books that are about your immediate place.

Why e-mail a full emotional statement when, instead, you can text a totally insignificant and ambiguous half-considered phrase?

Your family is unavoidable. You cannot escape them or trade them in for another family. You also can’t change them… but you can change your response to them.

It’s the differences in people that help you realize who you are. Even if we silently pass each other on the street.

I don’t think there’s any topic a writer should feel afraid of tackling just because it has already been discussed. If you feel you have a fresh perspective and an understanding of a certain emotional...

Anything by Lorrie Moore speaks to a certain kind of person.

Sadly, e-mail has triggered the decline of the handwritten note; I have seen its near-disappearance in my lifetime.

I don’t know much about any of the Hasidim because the men won’t talk to me because I’m a woman, and the women won’t talk to me because, while I am Jewish, I’m not Hasidic.

I was fat because I lived in the Midwest in the 1970s, and everyone was a little fat then and only getting fatter.

With apologies to all my past boyfriends, I never loved a man the way I loved my old apartment.

Some journal writers choose to password-protect their site, which is either an incredibly responsible act or a paranoid one.

Listen: I’m OK cute. I’m no stunner.

As creative people, we should be really conscious of being of service in our work, being as generous as we can.

Social media can connect you with other people in so many wonderful ways – but it can also make you really sick of yourself.

I know I have a problem with semi-colon abuse and have written page-long sentences. Nobody needs to be reading page-long sentences, at least not written by me.

I was fat because my parents were a little fat themselves at that point in their lives, and I ate what they ate.

Do you often find yourself uttering the phrase, ‘I feel like I should go?’ You do not need to go. You are busy that night. You are busy every night, forever.

I don’t know if I had ever found my place in the world until I fully committed to being a writer.

Many online journals get the most hits of the day during the lunch hour.

Cooking skills aside, my mother is an exceptional nurturer.

The best thing about the Web is the sound of all the individual voices rising.

In the past, I was sometimes put in this women’s lit category, and I was never really sure that was the appropriate place for me – although I certainly recognize it can be helpful and...

I won’t go anywhere near the new Times Square. It’s seizure-inducing.

I always tell people this when they’re looking for an agent – they should love your work. You are entitled to work with someone who believes in you. Why do business with someone who is...

I make up stories about people who are either imaginary or some variation of myself.

Maybe I wouldn’t hit three fast food restaurants in a day, but I could hit one in a day. I try not to do that.

For years I’d thought my color was black: deep, dark, thoughtful, mysterious. Black, you can hide behind. But now I know it is red.

The interesting thing about overeating or being obese is there’s this physical manifestation of it.

It should be said upfront that I totally dig people who work in bookstores and libraries. They love books, and I love books, and that is all I really need to know. If they are...

I wrote a novel. It’s called ‘The Middlesteins.’ It’s fiction. It’s not a memoir. I’m not a spokesperson.

I am not one of those people who string their exes along. Instead, I run and hide: under the covers, behind my computer screen, on opposite coasts of the country.

An ellipsis is a giant ocean of possibilities.

My grandmother died when my mother was just 11 years old, and consequently, my mother never learned how to cook particularly well.