Quotes from Hallie Ephron

I'm someone who sits at a computer eight hours a day, and I look in that pinhole camera at the top of my screen and think, 'Someone could be watching me.'

When you put your characters in a dire situation, they often do things that surprise even you, so you have to go back and revise your original conception of who they are.

A man notices a womans figure when she walks in a room. Women have eight million words for blue; a man says dark blue or light blue.

The book that made a lasting impression was the one my mother gave each of us when she decided we were ready for our first "adult novel," Lucy Maud Montgomery's The Blue Castle.

Our house was awash in books, and my mother doled out her favorites like they were special treats - which they were.

Even though I got a late start, first publishing an essay when I was 50 years old, I've since written eight suspense novels.

I was an outsider, never quite part of what was going on, always looking in. It turned out to be great preparation for writing fiction.

Outlining is like putting on training wheels. It gives me the courage to write, but we always go off the outline.

Phoebe Wolkind Ephron cracked wise like Dorothy Parker and looked like Katharine Hepburn.

I'd long wanted to write about that moment when a woman steps off the career track to have her first child. For me, that was a scary time.

The truth is rarely as dreadful or as terrifying as what one imagines.

I don't think anybody in my family meant there to be any pressure for me to write. But our parents were incredibly verbal and wrote for a living. The house was full of books, and we all grew up steeped in language. I mean, our mother recited poetry at the dinner table.

Everyone thinks when they start writing that they can't do it. I was lucky. My sister Delia was the most important person in terms of encouraging me.

My rule of writing is that no one can do what you can do, so jealousy or competitiveness are pointless. I am always happy when one of my sisters has a book published that I get to read.

As we got older, we grew comfortable in roles that met our parents' expectations. Nora was the smart one. Delia, the comedian. I was the pretty, obedient one. And Amy was the adventurous mischief-maker.

I haven't given any thought to collaborating with my sisters. It would be great fun. My daughter Molly is a wonderful writer - someday I'd love to collaborate with her.

It was time—past time, really—for her to let go of her anger and give herself permission to be her mother's daughter without being afraid that she was going to turn into her.

People who suffered nightmares frequently were three times more likely to commit suicide, and that was regardless of whether they were clinically depressed or suffering from PTSD.

teaching itself no longer spoke to her heart. Not in the uncomplicated way that her sock-sorting did.

Alls I'm saying is cops can lie to you, but you can't lie to the cops. Which is why we often advise people not to say anything.

You're going out in those? Mrs. Yetner's parting shot was a zinger—a gibe masquerading as an innocent question. Evie would have bristled had it come from her own mother. But she loved it coming from Mrs. Yetner. She gave her startled neighbor a quick hug

It had been a while since Mina had been properly hugged. Not since her sister. Mina sat at the kitchen table as memories flooded back.

Imaginary friends." "You know they're not real," Mina said. "I know, I know." Annabelle put a finger to her lips, shhh, and added in a stage whisper. "But they don't." Mina had laughed, and then stopped laughing because it was clear that Annabelle didn't get her own joke, and she wasn't about to start laughing at her sister. Not then. Not ever.

Acetaminophen. Same thing. It's in a lot of over-the-counter drugs. People take a Tylenol and a Nyquil and a Coricidin, not realizing they all have acetaminophen. More than two grams a day can be lethal for someone with a compromised liver. That's just three Extra Strength Tylenol. You can see how easy it is to overdose.