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.
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 of amazing work out there. These women are writing hard. There's...
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 ambivalent about you and your art?
The best thing about the Web is the sound of all the individual voices rising.
What's the point of having a book club if you don't get to eat brownies and drink wine?
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.
Food and love are all intertwined at our core level. It can be a very nurturing, wonderful, loving thing.
What a character eats is a detail - like eye color or a favorite song. But food is also our lifeblood.
There are a lot of great things about food, but it's something that's an eternal struggle in our contemporary society, where and how food is made, where it's coming from, how much to consume. There are so many layers to 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 years, and yet, I once saw Donald Trump from behind in an office building an...
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.
No offense to Bushwick, where all my neighbors greeted me on the street and there is a growing arts community and a curious beauty to its industrial zone, but Bushwick is no Williamsburg, even if the real estate agents would have you believe it is.
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.
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 remember being banned from other houses as a younger child during the winter holiday season; I was the only one who didn't believe in Santa Claus, and I was ruining everyone's Christmas.
I do not mourn the death of the printed letter in a snobby, East Coast, patrician way - 'Where have our manners gone?' - but because I love objects, I love paper, and I love something that I can hold to my chest for a moment. Still, I bear no grudge ...
Maybe just as many women writers as male writers could be billed as the next great American writer by their publisher. Maybe book criticism sections could review an equal amount of female and male writers. Maybe Oprah could start putting some books b...
It's good to pass on stories.
Does everything in this life begin and end with Judy Blume? Perhaps.
My love can be easily bought with a steak from Peter Luger's.
