When I wrote 'Home Safe,' I wanted to look at a number of things: the mystery and joy and pain of creativity. What happens when a vital safety net is suddenly removed. The difficulty some people have in growing up. The way a deep love can be as crippling as it is satisfying. But mostly, I wanted to look at the mother-daughter relationship.

I think conflict is one of the things that makes for a good story.

Writing is, of course, a solitary occupation. But for many writers, myself included, it's through writing that we make certain vital connections.

I like my house to feel like a place where I can just lie back and say, 'Ahhhhh, I'm home.'

I did interviews with tennis greats, like James Blake and John Isner. I also interviewed tennis pros who aren't well - known but who made all the same sacrifices but had just a little spark of a professional career and are now still orbiting the sport, either as a teaching pro or a coach.

Always think twice before you decide to do anything for a film. It may seem like a career-changing idea, but think of your family and your future before doing anything risky. Train properly, because looking strong and being strong are two different things.

I mean, if somebody said to me, junior year of college, you can go anywhere, your old man's paying for it, I'd have been gone in a flash. But I had to work. Every summer my mother would say, 'Get that job and hold on to it until August 30.'

When you go through a significant injury and have a major career change, you truly do go one year at a time, and you don't look past what's going on now, because you are not sure what's going to happen. Tomorrow is not promised.