Among men and women, those in love do not always announce themselves with declarations and vows. But they are the ones who weep when you're gone. Who miss you every single night, especially when the sky is so deep and beautiful, and the ground so very cold.
Hawthorne has given us a tradition that some people refer to as Yankee Magic Realism, and I do think there is a certain quality to the landscape that definitely leads into the dark woods.
I think growing up is difficult and it's a process that I'm always interested in, with kids and adults, they are often on two different universes.
No one knows how to write a novel until it's been written.
I really feel like the gift is also the curse. It's always half-and-half. Whatever brings you the most joy will also probably bring you the most pain. Always a price to pay.
All the characters in my books are imagined, but all have a bit of who I am in them - much like the characters in your dreams are all formed by who you are.
I think secrets often come out. I spoke to a friend who is a therapist and I asked her if there were people who came to her and admitted to doing horrible things and she said, 'More than you know.'
I don't think I make much of a distinction between the 'real' and the 'fantastic.' They both seem to be threads in the same cloth as far as I'm concerned.
I think we are bound to, and by, nature. We may want to deny this connection and try to believe we control the external world, but every time there's a snowstorm or drought, we know our fate is tied to the world around us.
The original fairy tale was about the youngest sister going into a room in the castle and finding all the bodies of the wives that came before her - she is confronted with truth, thinking about how often we think we know people and we really don't.
I always felt and still feel that fairy tales have an emotional truth that is so deep that there are few things that really rival them.
After a while, the characters I'm writing begin to feel real to me. That's when I know I'm heading in the right direction.
I also like the whole idea of fairy tales and folk tales being a woman's domain, considered a lesser domain at the time they were told.
Any institution becomes a community - whether it's a high school or a boarding school or a publishing company or a small town where everybody knows certain things about people.
Anyway, the sort of love that will not wait is probably best to pass by.
Even in times when it's difficult to figure out, how do you go forward, art - and books - always help.
Every time I finish a book, I forget everything I learned writing it - the information just disappears out of my head.
I always quit at three when my kids come home from school so I feel pretty spoiled.
I can't really work on more than one thing at a time.
I did go there later, but I hadn't been there before I wrote the book. Sometimes I feel like the imagined can feel more real than the real?
