That for me was the big turning point in my artistic life, when my wife and I had our kids. The world got infused with morality again. Every person in the world should theoretically be loved as much as I love my daughters.

From the perspective of someone with two grown and wonderful kids, that your instincts as parents are correct: a minute spent reading to your kids now will repay itself a million-fold later, not only because they love you for reading to them, but also because, years later, when they’re gone and miles away, those quiet evenings, when you were tucked in with them, everything quiet but the sound of the page-turns, will, seem to you, I promise...... sacred.

It is technically very hard to show positive manifestations. But I can look back at the way I thought and felt even as a little kid and there was a lot of wonder there, and openness to the many sides of life.

Being in church so often, spending those hours sitting in front of a highly symbolic array of objects, hearing those beautiful texts - it teaches a kid that there are important truths beyond the literal ones, and that we have ways to access those truths that are, let's say, super-rational.

I turned 54 this year and I find myself feeling like I'm in a bit of a race to get down on paper the way I really feel about life - or the way it has presented to me. And because it has presented to me very beautifully, this is hard. It is technically very hard to show positive manifestations.

There's a really nice moment in the life of a piece of writing where the writer starts to get a feeling of it outgrowing him - or he starts to see it having a life of its own that doesn't have anything to do with his ego or his desire to 'be a good writer.

The generalizing writer is like the passionate drunk, stumbling into your house mumbling: I know I'm not being clear, exactly, but don't you kind of feel what I'm feeling?

There's also a way that you have of being precise but also allusive, that works well for me - it's something about the open-hearted way you frame your queries. Instead of feeling daunted or discouraged, I feel excited to give whatever it is a try. This takes a lot of editorial wisdom and confidence - to know just how to get the writer to take that extra chance.

I love the feeling of being on the hunt - the feeling that the story is refusing to be solved in some lesser way and is insisting that you see it on its highest terms.

Anyone can be shamed, but feeling guilt requires empathy within.

I've also found that trying to be active with social media changes my moment-to-moment perceptions. Instead of feeling, "What's the deepest version of what's happening here?" I start to feel, "How can I use [or "claim"] this?".

I attended Catholic school. We received a great education from the nuns. ... Also, guilt. Guilt and a feeling of never being satisfied with what you've done. And a sense that you are inadequate and a big phony. All useful for a writer. I'm always being edited by my inner nun.

To me, the writer's main job is to just make the story unscroll in such a way that the reader is snared - she's right there, seeing things happen and caring about them. And if you dedicate yourself to this job, the meanings more or less take care of themselves. That's the theory, anyway.

I could actually care less about the poor. We have some living near us, and pee-yew. They are always coming and going to their three or four jobs at all hours of the day and night. Annoying!

Whatever you love, that will be an influence. It just will. So in effect the young writer's job is: go out and find some stuff to love.

It's not fiction's job to be photographically representative of reality. If I want to make a fictional world where there's no kindness, this doesn't mean I believe there's no kindness in the real world. In fact, what it may mean is that I very much value kindness. Like if you make a painting in which only greens are allowed, it wouldn't mean you don't believe in blue.

For me, the fiction writer's job is to take the small, stupid process of learning to use an iPhone - and suddenly you're the guy who's asking your daughter, "When I go on Facebook, can it see me?"

You know, I really don't have a specific race that I go towards or that I typically date.

I mean, I'm an eye-roller by nature.

My dad is now a federal judge, but when he started off, he graduated from the top law school in Texas and couldn't get a job.

I don't want to critique an apology. An apology is an apology.

I started off as a prosecutor and I would be sitting there, waiting for the defense attorney to come, and they would either bypass me because they would assume that I'm not the attorney or they would assume that I was the legal secretary or a paralegal - never the attorney.

I'm a black woman and I'm so happy to represent myself in that respect, but I don't want it to be something that defines me and my journey for love. I definitely don't mind talking about it and addressing it.

I've learned that I'm a much more traditional bride than I like to admit. Even from the invitations by Ceci New York with the script font. My dress is very traditional, even though it's a little risque.

When I was approached to be the 'Bachelorette,' I was like, 'Uh, no. I don't think I can do this again.' It was conversations that I had with people that said, 'I'm so happy to see a Black woman represented well in a franchise, or 'I'm watching this show again because you did it,' that renewed my wanting to be part of this franchise.

My social media, I think I had 700 followers before, now it's like 800,000.

So my go-tos are bodysuits, crop tops, I like to wear a cute little crop top, but then maybe a jazzy pant. I wear a lot of pants.

I majored in sports management, and then I went to law school for sports law.

I freelance as a sports broadcaster.

I'm a sucker for a great smile.

I'm looking for a guy who can make me laugh, who knows exactly what he wants, who's ambitious, ready to start a family, ready to get married.

I'm in this thing, you know. I'm 'Bachelor' Nation, I'm a part of the franchise.

The 'Bachelor' franchise does believe in happy endings - some people get an on-camera happy ending, some people get on off-camera happy ending, and some people get both.

I think it is fair to say that I was denied my on-camera happy ending.

The Bachelor is in charge of saying what they're interested in and what they're not. Some people don't know that - they do ask you.

I've always wanted to get married and have a family, but I'm not the girl who sat down and planned out her wedding, her dress, or how everything would go with the proposal.

To be the first to do something is huge - all eyes are on you. You just don't know how people are going to judge you.

I have a big personality, and people feed off that.

I love a man that's in touch with his feelings. Now, I don't need you to cry more than you talk, but I love that if you're feeling something you just go with it.

You have to know what you want and focus on that.

When you aren't private you open yourself to everyone's opinions about you.

That was my thing: if it's so easy, it's boring or something's not right.

I run away from the one who is good on paper - the one who has it all together - and I run toward the one that's more complicated, and who I can fix and we can work on it together.

I'm a huge Russell Westbrook fan. I pretend I know him, I call him Rusty. But I love his style and someone who steps out out of the box and is bold and that's him.

I'm a Black woman and I've always been told that I wasn't Black enough because of the way that I grew up, the experiences that I had.

Up until I was 30 I really didn't date seriously outside of my race because I felt like society - not my parents, not my friends - society was telling me I had to pick a Black man.

I can tell you my dream bachelorette party, but I cannot tell you my dream wedding.

Family's big to me.

I love Dallas.

I am a proud, not Texan, but a citizen of Dallas.