Elinor Lipman

“I wear a pedometer, aiming for five miles a day - don't be too impressed; that includes walking around my house and food shopping.”

“I watch golf on television, although I don't golf - except for visits to the driving range in spurts.”

“That's how it was on Irving Circle and how I was raised: You made the best out of what was within reach, which meant friendships engineered by parents and by the happenstance of housing. I stayed with it because we both had queenly older sisters who rarely condescended to play with us, because Shelley was adopted and I was not, because Shelley had Clue and Life, and I did not”

“My narrators tend to be women with low self-esteem, so I can send them to charm school.”

“I was nearly fired from my second job, which was writing press releases for Boston's public television station.”

“I was a roving guard on the Lowell Hebrew Community Center's girls' basketball team all through high school. My specialty was stealing the ball, but my only shot was a lay-up.”

“An early editor characterized my books as 'romantic comedy for intelligent adults.' I think people see them as funny but kind. I don't set out to write either funny or kind, but it's a voice they like, quirky like me... And you know, people like happy endings.”

“Five hundred words a day is what I aim for. And I don't go on to the next chapter until I've polished and polished and polished the one I'm working on.”