You can try to take sorrow and make it into something enduring, meaningful and beautiful. I always feel guilty that this is my job, that I get to do this.- Alice Hoffman
They were written on cheap blue notebooks bought by poor women. I am interested in folk tales in the way that medicine and magic in women's stories are all kind of combined.
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 do not.
The adults do not know what's happening on the kids' universe and the kids do not know what's happening on the adults' universe.
No one knows how to write a novel until it's been written.
Mothers always find ways to fit in the work - but then when you are working, you feel that you should be spending time with your children and then when you are with your children, you are thinking about working.
It was a great escape for me and it was a way to take a break from what was going on in my own world, to go into another world.
Ironically, now that my children are older and gone quite a bit, I find it harder to work when they're not around. Too much free time!
I have been a screenwriter for twenty-five years. Every one of my books have been optioned for movies and I have written a few of those screenplays.
I am much faster now. When you only have a certain amount of time to write, after a while you learn to use your time well or you stop writing.
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.
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 think love is a huge factor in fiction and in real life. Is there a risk? Always. In fiction and in life.
I think growing up is difficult and it's a process that I am always interested in, with kids and adults, they are often on two different universes.
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.
