I was one of the first authors to have an active website. I'm totally obsessed with technology. I'm always looking for ways to connect with my readers. I answer all my fan mail.

Jodi Picoult

Categorized in : Answers Fans Technology

Often, when the last page is turned, it will haunt you. by Jodi Picoult

Often, when the last page is turned, it will haunt you.

pages lasts

Everyone still deserves to have their say. by Jodi Picoult

Everyone still deserves to have their say.

stills deserve

Sometimes when you find something you didn't really realize you were looking for, you just don't know how to react.

know-how realizing sometimes

If you don't believe in yourself, and you don't have the fortitude to make that dream happen, why should the hotshots in the publishing world take a chance on you? I don't believe that you need an MFA to be a writer, but I do think you need to take some good workshops.

dream believe thinking

The way I challenge myself is by writing something that really engages me, that doesn't have an easy answer, and isn't always an easy book to write.

challenges writing book

I think my writing has become "cleaner." by Jodi Picoult

I think my writing has become "cleaner."

cleaners writing thinking

I don't base my books on my life (thank goodness) and I don't pick the topic first. In fact, the topic picks me - via a question I can't answer as a mom, a wife, a woman, an American. I find myself wondering "What if..." and it blossoms into a whole novel.

ifs-and mom book

I start by mulling a question and before I know it, a whole drama is unfolding in my head. Often, an idea sticks before I know what I'm going to do with it.

sticks drama ideas

I love getting fan mail. Often, as a writer, you never know what your readers think of a book... you get critical reviews and sales figures, but none of that is the same as knowing you've made a person stay up all night reading, or helped them have a good cry, or really touched their life.

reading night book

Many people have a novel inside them, but most don't bother to ge... by Jodi Picoult

Many people have a novel inside them, but most don't bother to get it out.

novel bother people

A lot of the moms of autistic kids I met are so consumed with being their child's advocate that there's no room for anything else - least of all themselves. It's why so many marriages end in divorce, when a child is diagnosed on the spectrum.

mom kids children

I haven't run out of ideas yet. Usually while I'm working on a book, I'm doing research for the next one!

running book ideas

Have a conversation with your family about your end-of-life wishes while you are healthy. No one wants to have that discussion... but if you do, you'll be giving your loved ones a tremendous gift, since they won't have to guess what your wishes would have been, and it takes the onus of responsibility off of them.

healthy responsibility giving

Write a living will. And become an organ donor! by Jodi Picoult

Write a living will. And become an organ donor!

organ-donor donors writing

You want to write something as good as what you've read. by Jodi Picoult

You want to write something as good as what you've read.

want writing

I don't believe in writer's block. Most of writer's block is having too much time on your hands. My mantra is that you can always edit a bad page; you can't edit a blank page.

block believe hands

To me gay rights is the last civil right that we have not granted in America and I think it's an enormous embarrassment.

gay rights thinking

Any time you put on the mouthpiece of somebody that you're not, there's a professional responsibility to get it right. I did a great deal of research in both of those arenas.

arena research responsibility

For me, every book is a journey - questioning a really difficult topic that most people don't want to talk about, much less write about. And that's what I need; that works for me as a writer.

journey writing book

Fiction allows for moral questioning, but through the back door. Personally, I like books that make you think - books you're still wondering about three days after you finish them; books you hand to a friend and say "Read this, so we can talk about it."

doors book thinking