Candace Bushnell

“I've been writing fiction probably since I was about 6 years old, so it's something that is second nature to me now. I just sit down and start writing. I don't sit down and start writing and it comes out perfectly - it's a process.”

“it's telling yourself that you want the things that society tells you you should want. women thikn that survival depends on conformity. but for some women, conformity is death. it's a death to the soul. the soul, "she said, "is a precious thing. when you live a lie, you damage the soul.”

“Maybe our girlfriends are our soulmates and guys are just people to have fun with.”

“The '80s was all about this idea that women could have it all. You could have a career, and you could have a husband, and you could have children.”

“The fact that a man is open to being with an older woman suggests that he doesn't give a hang what other people think of him. More likely, he's confident, open-minded and willing to make his own rules.”

“It was ironic, but when you scratched the surface, most successful men were working for one thing only--to retire--and the sooner the better. Whereas women were the complete opposite. She had never heard a woman say she was working so she could retire to a desert island or to live on a boat. It was probably, she thought, because most women didn't think they deserved to do nothing.”

“My decorating and renovation skills are nil - indeed, I once used a shower curtain from Pottery Barn as 'window dressing.'”

“Something good happens to you, and you let off a different energy that attracts other good things.”

“It was the first honest emotional connection I'd had in a while. So I immediately panicked and had to leave.”

“I have a house in the Connecticut countryside where you'll always find me, summer or winter.”

“Well I actually do have a country house in Connecticut with a population of 3,000. Like, how small is that? I spend a lot of time there - I write up there. So I kind of have the best of both worlds and I love going up there.”

“As long as one refuses to know one's place, there's no telling what one can do in the world.”

“Man may have discovered fire, but women discovered how to play with it.”

“I started working for the 'NY Observer' when I was 33. After I had been writing for them for about a year and a half the editor said, 'Your stories are the most talked about stories in the 'Observer'; you should have your own column.'”

“Well in the book Carrie was my alter ego. In real life, Sarah Jessica and I don't look anything alike. But people do say that we sound alike. Sarah Jessica is an adorable girl and she is very funny.”

“What I have yet to see is a real woman choose a younger man because he spent six hours a day at the gym trying to sculpt his abs.”

“Sometimes I want to be on 'The Real Housewives of New York.' I want to remind them to figure out how to get along and support each other.”

“I'm really enjoying being single. I'm not even looking to meet anybody, which is so freeing.”

“If everyone in New York took sides over these petty, insignificant arguments, no one would have any friends at all.”

“I'm looking forward to writing more novels for young adults.”