“When I started writing the pages in 1989 that later evolved to became my first book, I had no intent, conception, premonition, or clue that I was creating characters that would endure for over a dozen books.”

“I am most fascinated when a straightforward story seems to hold hidden complexities. Every conversation holds secrets, and every town has its mysteries. Nothing is ever simple.”

“In the initial foray into reading for each of the novels, there is always a lot of imbibing of the background and atmosphere, a searching for story, an investigation into details. Then, I will settle into intensive research - read and reread a few select books and manuscripts, cull points of interest, look for aspects that provide movement in my own story.”

“I thought I should live closer, but I didn’t want to be on the same piece of land as my mother…She was a hard person to get on with, and not a very good mother. In all our lives with her, my brother and I never got a hug or a kiss. She was that kind of mother, and my father was anywhere but at home. At the same time we were raised with a sense of duty, and duty to me is as important as love, if not more important. My book, An Indecent Obsession was about duty.”

“I guess liking mysteries goes back to Aristotle, who said we read or watch tragedy because the bad stuff happens to someone else and we feel relieved that we’re still alive, and the perpetrator takes the blame for what happened. It’s a catharsis.”

“He’s actually a pretty good mechanic and somewhere in Philadelphia he’s running a pretty successful chop shop to this day.”

“I believe that people are very interested in reading about the ordinary things of life. One can make a very simple situation seem interesting — often it is very simple matters that arouse most passions in people.”

“I had been hired to write a movie for the Playboy channel – soft porn. I didn’t know that Playboy had co-financed it with an adult film company and suddenly there were many different versions of my film.”

James Hollis
James Hollis, Ph. D. is Executive Director of the Jung Center of Houston, TX, a practicing Jungian Analyst, and author of eleven books, including the most recent Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up.

Why is Jungian psychology so dominant today? Why is Freud in eclipse? [...]

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
It happened in 1976 when Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was all of 19. Walking down a Chicago street with some relatives she was appalled when a few white teenagers yelled “nigger” and hurled slush at her. The incident, deeply shaming, was never discussed, but it stayed and played in her mind and acted as [...]