When I was a child I wanted to be a vet. I'd come home with ""lost"" kittens and dogs. My mother would tell me to put them back.

Although some people think I am a romantic novelist I have always thought of myself as a rather gritty radical historian.

I am in the interesting position of being sometimes skimmed by the critics and called literature and sometimes called historical fiction.

Being a stepmother has worked out very well for me. I love my stepchildren very much.

You get a lot of who you are as a musician across through the music you write. If you're writing your own music, then it's important to be really honest.

I have an active imagination.

I did not see myself as a leading lady. I thought I was really funny-looking and I would never be the lead, and I certainly would never do film or television. I wanted to do theater. I wanted to be the grand dame of the American stage.

I don't find writing for the theater that different from writing a rock song.