As a reader and a writer, I'm happiest when apparently mutually exclusive states can somehow coexist.

Reading is a lot like eating for me: If I try to read a book I'm not hungry for, I won't enjoy it, but if I wait until I have a real appetite for something, I'll devour it.

I'm partial to epic poetry, which might be surprising given that I don't write poetry at all. The combination of rollicking storytelling with musical language seems to me the highest achievement.

I'm obsessed with the Victorian novel. I can't help it. I feel like the novel then was so powerful and agile in ways I'm not sure it is now.

I have this dream again and again: I find extra rooms in the place where I live. You could say it's a very New York dream, but I think it's about writing - the feeling that there is something behind a wall or a door.

Fiction is my deepest love, but I love journalism, too. It keeps me thinking vigorously, and it reminds me that there is a world out there.

Time is always a component of place; you can't really talk about where without talking about when.

When I think about a book like 'A Clockwork Orange,' which I really loved, the weird hybrid language is what I remember most.

One futuristic novel that had a huge impact on me was Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein,' which is kind of science fiction plus Gothic.

I haven't read a lot of science fiction, and I never intend to write it; it seems to happen a little bit inadvertently for me, in that I'm trying to follow people into points in their lives that demand that I investigate the future.

I write with pen and paper, my first draft, on legal pads.

I would go so far as to say that I mostly write terrible things. I mean, my first drafts are so appalling.

I knew as far back as 2001 that I would write a book called 'A Visit From the Goon Squad,' though I had no idea what kind of book it would be.

I never did anything original my whole childhood. I was invisible.

After 9/11, the U.S. seemed vulnerable for the first time in a long time. We were no longer the superpower that no other country could touch. I thought, 'When and how did that dominance begin?'

I felt unbelievably lucky to have the success I did with 'Goon Squad,' and I also felt the pressure of how fleeting that success can be.

I think playing the glamour card is a disastrous error as a literary writer.

I just think that, for my particular personality, feeling slightly invisible is always a help.

Invention and memory are so close together in the place they occupy in my brain.

I'm not reading what I write when I wrote. It's an unconscious outpouring that's a mess, and it's many, many steps away from anything anyone would want to read. Creating that way seems to generate the most interesting material for me to work with, though.

I've tried writing on a computer thinking it would make me more efficient, but if you're writing crummy stuff, being efficient is no help.

To some degree, we're all thinking about the same things. It's the zeitgeist. The trick, in a way, as a writer, is to hope that your interests in some sense link up with the culture around you.

You can research until you're falling asleep, but that still doesn't mean you're really fluent in the material.

You can start imagining all kinds of things characters would feel, but you have to have a sense of whether those imaginings might be right.

I do like having my ears pierced, because there's a lot more choice in pierced earrings than there is with clip-ons, and they're a lot more comfortable to wear - Sometimes I completely forget I've got them in and end up going to sleep wearing them.

My mother is a big believer in being responsible for your own happiness. She always talked about finding joy in small moments and insisted that we stop and take in the beauty of an ordinary day. When I stop the car to make my kids really see a sunset, I hear my mother's voice and smile.

I don't have this fantasy about marriage anymore. Everyone says it takes hard work. Well, it kind of does - and I'm much more pragmatic about romance than I used to be.

I think that it's not as crazily different, my job, from anyone else's, as people let themselves believe. I think people get wrapped up in their own idea of what it is, but it's really not that.

I wish I was one of those cute pregnant girls who wear skinny jeans throughout their pregnancies. But I just gain weight.

My mom has always said that the one thing she wishes she had done differently is have a job. She felt like the single-mindedness made her a little nuts sometimes, and she could have used an outlet for herself when we were little.

I am the model middle child. I am patient and I like to take care of everyone. Being called nice is a compliment. It's not a boring way to describe me.

I never use powder unless I'm about to be in front of a camera. I don't need that matte, crunchy feeling.

I do all my own stunts!

I mean, any time an actress gets to work with another actress, it's like, 'Oh, there are two of us in a movie! How are you? Let's sit in the hair chair together!' We're lonely women.

I've had more acne as an adult than I had as a teenager. After weaning babies, my skin's gone totally bonkers. I didn't even know about dermatologists until I had weaned my first baby, and my skin was so damaged. It was just beyond. And then, I realized, there's a whole doctor who can help you with this.

You stick to the script, the script is Bible.

Beauty comes from a life well lived. If you've lived well, your smile lines are in the right places, and your frown lines aren't too bad, what more do you need?

My mother and father always supported my passion for acting. I think they just kind of expected me to move to New York and become an actress and have all these adventures.

I can definitely benefit from a self-tan, although I cannot say that I am the best at applying it. I'm just not gifted at those kinds of things! But bronzer for sure. Also, just using blush that has that kind of a sun-kissed color as opposed to a bright pink. I would rather have it be really sheer and just right where the sun would hit you.

I like watching Tom Brady, not just because he's handsome - I get handsome; I understand handsome - but he's a fine leader, he's a great quarterback, and I like the team. I'm not going to apologize for that.

There's an internal battle. I need to work, I need to work, I need to work and I need to be home with my kids and the kids win.

I am not pregnant, but I've had three kids, and there is a 'bump.' From now on, ladies, I will have a 'bump,' and it will be my 'baby bump,' and let's just all settle in and get used to it; it's not going anywhere.

My parents came from a poor background and worked their way up because of education. They saw it as a way to succeed. So they cared about me getting straight A grades when I was growing up.

I'm privileged, because I have a lot of freedom. I want to use it to make as warm and normal a life as I can for our daughters.

I didn't drink. I was never a big party girl, but I streaked. I was just in a naked frame of mind. I don't think I was the only streaker, but I might have been the leader of the streakers! And we just all streaked, all summer.

Women should take care of each other, not tear each other down.

My mom grew up in poverty in Oklahoma - like Dust Bowl, nine people in one room kind of place - and the way she got out of poverty was through education. My dad grew up without a dad, with very little and he also made his way out through education.

I wasn't a woman who stayed tiny like I thought I would. I definitely gave myself the freedom to eat what I wanted.

The last thing I want to do is complain; I love what I do, and I know every job comes with a downside. But boy, this one's a doozy...You pull out of your driveway, and the paparazzi literally chase you, running red lights - I'm a really careful driver, especially with my kids in the car, but I worry they're going to cause an accident.

I have always been drawn to child-related causes. I find that people listen to me more when I advocate for children now that I have my own.