[on 'The Competitors', her novel about a high school shooting] When I wrote it I was reaching back to Columbine, thinking, How do kids end up this way? Who wants to believe that their child goes to a school that's a death zone? Then came Sandy Hook and then one after another after another after another. It was so upsetting. For a minute there, I thought maybe I should drop this book.

[on her role as an appellate lawyer] It's a very different kind of practice from trial work, because we review the transcripts and look for errors that make a difference in the verdict or sentencing. It's kind of an intellectual thing, but it keeps me on top of the way cases are handled.

[on the O.J.Simpson trial] At the time, I couldn't see the degree to which justice could be subverted by fame and the way that fame impacts everything: the judge, the lawyers, the witnesses. It was inexplicable to me.