Caroline Leavitt

“I always write about the things that haunt me, the questions I have.”

“Literature can allow us to experience the best side of humankind, where instead of giving up, we struggle desperately in the ruins for love, connection and hope.”

“If a kid disappears, now there's Amber Alerts: they know this-this-this. In the '50s, we kids wandered around. Nobody knew what you were doing.”

“I'm big on story structure. I studied with John Truby, who mapped out story by means of moral wants and needs, and that's what I do. Hey, so does John Irving.”

“People love stories. They need stories.”

“All writers know how important a good title is. It's the first thing readers see, along with a knock-your-socks-off cover - a seductive 'come hither' for the story within.”

“I love rewriting because that is where and how you discover the story. It's like you have this skeleton, and you get to put flesh on it and hair and clothes and really wonderful jewelry.”

“L.A. is a place people come to for all sorts of reasons, often to reinvent themselves, and that fascinates me.”

“A product name has to be specific. You know that Tasty Soup is tasty - that Hot Chips will burn off the roof of your mouth.”

“Oh, I've had terrible, terrible relationships! The fact that I ever got happily married to a great, normal man is kind of a miracle.”

“I absolutely want and prize and love and revere every single media review I get, but if I got 50 reviews from major newspapers and one review from Amazon, I still would feel a little weird: 'What's going on? Why aren't people responding?'”

“I write about what haunts me, and I write the books I myself am dying to read. I love it. I can't think of anything I'd rather do.”

“While some of the big publishers might give out 200,000 advances, if your book does not hit some of the lists in the second week, they stop paying attention to you.”

“A title means marketing. It means that company's coming soon, and you'd better get out the Christmas lights so they don't miss your house.”

“I love real books, paper books, but I also love buying online, and I think that people are more willing to take a chance to read something if it's cheaper - sometimes books on the Kindle are $6. A hardback book is $25. For $25, it better be a really great book. Or you're going to be mad.”

“I'm a big believer in quantum physics, which says that the universe is more incredible and mysterious than any of us can imagine, which is my way of saying, 'Anything is possible, including angels.'”

“I was a bookworm who aced every test - until third grade, when my teacher handed out a pop quiz about Jesus and the Apostles.”

“My first husband was a serial cheater.”

“A lot of people hurl themselves into relationships to lose themselves, but I think the best relationships help us to be more ourselves, to bring forth our best selves.”

“Open adoption, when it works, is fabulous. But when it goes wrong, it's so traumatizing for everybody.”