Does everything in this life begin and end with Judy Blume? Perhaps.

When we are young - or even 32 - we often say 'yes' to everything because we're worried that we won't know what we'll like if we don't try it.

Do you often find yourself uttering the phrase, 'I feel like I should go?' You do not need to go. You are busy that night. You are busy every night, forever.

In your 40s, you shed those who bring you down and surround yourself with the most positive people you know.

Your family is unavoidable. You cannot escape them or trade them in for another family. You also can't change them... but you can change your response to them.

I know I have a problem with semi-colon abuse and have written page-long sentences. Nobody needs to be reading page-long sentences, at least not written by me.

My love can be easily bought with a steak from Peter Luger's.

I make up stories about people who are either imaginary or some variation of myself.

When I was growing up in Chicago, my family and I used to go to a local chain, Hackney's, for burgers and their French fried onion loaf. I probably haven't been to one in 25 years, and yet, I once saw Donald Trump from behind in an office building and the first thing that flashed in my mind was his hair looked like that onion loaf.

We've all got flesh. I've just got a little more.

No matter how many feminist tracts you read, you never forget what boys like.

I'm pretty pro-food.

I've always been an old soul.

The interesting thing about overeating or being obese is there's this physical manifestation of it.

I'm a really selfish person. But I would do anything for my friends.

I didn't go to graduate school, where all the important writers seemed to be getting their start. I didn't pursue getting published in literary magazines. I didn't even send out countless pitch letters and manuscripts to agents.

In 1998, I started a blog, something I could control very easily and update at my own whim.

I always tell people this when they're looking for an agent - they should love your work. You are entitled to work with someone who believes in you. Why do business with someone who is ambivalent about you and your art?

People are branded as either 'fat' or 'skinny' from an early age. You sort of never shake it, even if you end up losing weight.

I think it's nearly impossible to write something fictional without having it be about yourself in some way or another.

I'm not really interested in writing or reading about people who are nice and easy. I like the problem children.

It's good to pass on stories.

I have very distinct memories about growing up as part of what was then a very small Jewish community in Buffalo Grove, IL.

I did get in a few fights in school. Kids threw around anti-Semitic slurs, not knowing necessarily what they meant. It was probably just something they picked up somewhere, as kids do.

I remember being banned from other houses as a younger child during the winter holiday season; I was the only one who didn't believe in Santa Claus, and I was ruining everyone's Christmas.

Most of my writer friends are women, and they're all extremely talented, so of course I think the state of contemporary fiction for women is pretty great. Which is to say there is a ton of amazing work out there. These women are writing hard. There's much to be said. We're on it, chief.

I don't think there's any topic a writer should feel afraid of tackling just because it has already been discussed. If you feel you have a fresh perspective and an understanding of a certain emotional truth, it's always worth writing.

I don't know if I had ever found my place in the world until I fully committed to being a writer.

You write a book, and after 50 pages you think it's about one thing, and then you write another hundred and you realize it's about something else, and then by the time you're done, you can look back and say, 'Oh, this is what it's about.'

I actually didn't grow up in a household that loved Chinese food particularly, and it's not really my go-to food or anything... We were more a pizza family, being from the Chicago area and all.

I don't mind a bit of cricket, but it has to be something massive like the Ashes.

You can shape statistics to make them look however you want them to.

It's been a privilege for me, really, to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world, an iconic club, an institution.

Anger and bad experiences used to fuel my performances, but it was horribly draining.

We are constantly told to enjoy Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo before they retire but what about Arjen Robben?

Would I - or any defender - tell the referee to give a penalty if I made a foul in the box but it was deemed a fair tackle? No chance.

Learning to be a Liverpool player comes with experience.

People make relegation out to be a fate worse than death but that's nonsense. If the infrastructure is right, clubs can bounce back.

I think with my generation, your first game of senior football was often a Sunday League game of football. Sometimes you're playing on pitches that aren't great, you've no referee, you've no goal nets.

I've been in the position where Liverpool needed to win on the last day to reach the Champions League. In May 2000, we needed to beat Bradford, who were fighting to avoid relegation, at Valley Parade but lost an awful game 1-0.

If you want trophies, they don't get given to you, you have to earn them, you have to play well in big games.

We talk about the Arsenal 'Invincibles' of 2004 and the team who won the Double two years earlier and drool over their attacking play. It is easy to forget, though, that virtually the same squad had won nothing for three years.

In the modern era, with the rewards the top players have during their career and the risks involved moving into management, more will look at it and say they don't need it.

Playing for England is a bonus, but playing for Liverpool is what I want to do.

I want to be a manager, it wouldn't scare me, but I also think you could be sacked in six months and you'd have to take the kids back to school with your tail between your legs.

In knockout football, it's one bad game and you're out.

Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso was always bemused by our enthusiasm for tackling, because he saw it as the last resort.

I was an Evertonian as a kid, but I've never hated Man United. I've always had respect for them.

For the life of me, I'll never understand why the teams that have the best defences get criticised. Shouldn't clean sheets be a badge of honour for defenders and goalkeepers?

I've seen plenty of young lads elevated into the senior squad acting like they have made it.