Danielle Steel

I think I’m very real as a person, and that comes across in my work.

In my late teenage years, I developed a real passion for it, and wrote a lot of poetry.

I’ve shut myself inside these walls, and I’m going to be a very lonely old lady if I’m not careful.

I decided I would never do interviews again.

My early reviews were so bad that I decided I didn’t want to read them again.

I like summer. I like warmer weather and long days. I’m one of those silly people who still enjoy lying in the sun – my children are horrified!

The usual way – through a long series of rejections, revising my manuscripts, and kept trying again and again. Finally I was fortunate enough to find a good agent.

I did it at night because I loved it. I never did it to make money, as a job. I just did it because I had to.

If you see the magic in a fairy tale, you can face the future.

I’m astonished by my success.

I wrote because I needed to and wanted to. It never occurred to me that I’d become famous.

The records of adopted children are sealed in California. That seal is considered inviolable… The judge ruled that, because I was famous, he didn’t have the same rights as other kids.

I move between San Francisco and Paris… I have a wonderful beach house in California.

I have these wonderful homes, and no one to share them with.

A bad review is like baking a cake with all the best ingredients and having someone sit on it.

I completed my first novel when I was 19 years old.

I started writing stories as a child.

I studied literature design and fashion design.

It’s hard being visible, so I’ve made myself invisible.

I try to give people hope. Even though life is bleak, there’s hope out there.

People are much more inclined to believe and say bad things about you if you’re famous.

I try to write about the stuff that torments us all.

Sometimes, if you aren’t sure about something, you have to just jump off the bridge and grow wings on your way down.

I am endlessly busy, bringing up five young kids, and trying to keep up with the three older ones. I still spend most of my life driving car pools.

My kids are more precious to me than anything. I’m with them all day, and I write all night.

It’s difficult to talk to people… I walk into a room and I’m Danielle Steel, and whatever I say is going to be taken apart.

At the moment, I’m enjoying John Grisham quite a bit.

A book begins with an image or character or situation that I care about deeply.