Susan Isaacs

As soon as someone is coming from New York, I automatically think I have to get dressed up.

I wanted to be a cowgirl... But, you know, it was pointed out to me that, you know, growing up in Brooklyn, there wasn't much opportunity... for cowgirlery.

We joined a Conservative synagogue. I began learning through engagement, rote and reading. Suddenly, I belonged... well, to the extent that a novelist can ever feel she is part of a group; we may be part of a minyan, but we're not fully merged into the community.

I like to show ordinary people reacting to extraordinary circumstances. It's an opportunity for adventure, and I like women to have adventures. There's been far too little of it with women.

There are days where I lose track of time, of place, of everything else, because I've been transported to another universe.

It's not that I'm apolitical... In my youth, I was a freelance political speechwriter, which taught me a lot about writing fiction, I must add.

I was always the weirdo who wanted to have an egalitarian service in synagogue and felt I was always going against the grain.

At the beginning, I really wanted to be home with my kid. I was a product of my generation. But in the suburbs, you are very isolated, really alone.

There are so many different worlds in Long Island. That's why it's so fascinating. Between Great Neck and Montauk, there are 10,000 worlds.

It's not all 'Jane Eyre' out there. In her sweet, honorable, slightly passive-aggressive way, Jane was as perfect as a protagonist can get while remaining interesting; in fact, she's one of my favorites. But most characters are more morally ambiguous.

I have such admiration for Whoopi Goldberg as an actress and a general smart person.

I am married to a happy camper. He's a criminal lawyer who thinks people are inherently good and will befriend him. His father, at 93, is the same way.