“Writers, naturally, dream of becoming authors. Authors dream of writing a bestseller. Bestselling authors want to write more bestsellers. And everyone hopes for big prizes. Why? Because we believe in magic." Publisher's Weekly magazine, Dec. 12, 2011”

“How hard it must be to keep fighting for a dream when that dream is probably a mirage.”

“Snooki is a bestselling author? Huh? What? I don't know if I should dumb down my book, shoot myself or find a publisher who'll settle for a rough draft written on a Pop-Tart and a coconut lotion handie..”

“It was terrifying, liberating, and risky. But one day I woke up and decided to try it." (On writing her first novel, "Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society")”

“I didn't want my epitaph to be "She Played It Safe.”

“Maybe freedom means defining yourself any way you want to be.”

“When people ask me how we've lived past one hundred, I say, 'Honey, we never married. We never had husbands to worry us to death!A. Elizabeth (Bessie) Delany”