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American writers, at least those of us who are fortunate enough to support ourselves in the field, are by and large a lucky lot.

I like the writing life, but it's not something that always makes enough money.

I'm pleased to have outsold great writers. But I'm not insane - I realize I am a writer people buy to take on vacation.

Curiously, the United States is full of writers who have one big work in their life and that's all.

I kind of want to be seen as an American writer, not just a New York writer.

I do realize that I am a popular writer who people buy to take on vacation. I'm an escapist kind of writer.

Any writer worth the name is always getting into one thing or getting out of another thing.

I don't live my life as a writer. I'm a mother, an African-American woman, and I do everything that everybody else does - cook and a little bit of cleaning.

I spent my whole life as a writer talking to just the average guy in Los Angeles and Latin America, talking to working people.

I consider myself a writer who writes about American expatriates. And if I have any overt cause as a writer besides writing the best prose I can, it's to try to make Americans have a more visceral feeling about how America impacts everybody in the world.