Quotes from Adriana Trigiani

For a woman, love is the highest dream, and if a man promises to build a ladder tall enough to reach it, she believes him, hikes up her skirt, and follows him to the stars.

Love has a funny way of showing up when you aren't looking for it and didn't plan on it.

The intimacy. The deepest level of love. The knowledge that someone understands you, is rooting for you, is sharing your life.

I love rhinestones, faux jewelry.

I love actors and I love to create an environment where they feel safe to connect and thrive and try things, to fail and succeed and flourish and fly.

The only urgent thing in life is the pursuit of love. You get that one right, and you've solved the mystery.

I'm writing novels because I found something I love because I tried it. Don't be afraid to shake it up.

But the most precious research to me came from the paperwork filed on behalf of my grandparents and great-grandfather. The ship's manifest showed that they could read and write. I am still emotional when I look at those boxes checked yes.

I understand how a first impression is often just that: a quick snapshot that, on its own merit, is meaningless.

'All the Stars in the Heavens' takes place during the golden age of Hollywood, around an imagined story about Loretta Young; Clark Gable; Alda, a young woman with a secret who is preparing to become a nun but is cast out of her convent; and the scenic artist she meets on the set of 'The Call of the Wild.' It's a big, lush historical novel.

On the cover of 'All the Stars' is a red grosgrain ribbon. It's Loos's ribbon. Ageless, fabulous Loos - she tricked the very people who would have cast her aside like an old shoe if they knew the truth.

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who want to know the facts, and those who want to make up a nice story to feel better. I wish I was the kind who made up stories.

We have a million ways to get ahold of people, and we're the loneliest we've ever been.

The Calandra Institute, the Metropolitan Opera Archives, the library at Lincoln Center, and the Fashion Institute of Technology were helpful and key to piecing together what life must have been like at the turn of the last century.

Motherhood changes everything.

I have a new book coming out, so I do movie, book, movie, book, movie, book, every place we go.

Women move through the world never knowing their power.

I write novels about women, except for one: 'Rococo', about a man, a New Jersey decorator. But even that book had a woman on the cover.

I can't take just one book with me anywhere.

You never know when some small thing will lead to a big idea. Travel is very inspirational - but it's in the ordinary that I find my themes of love and work and family.

I'm very organized - and the best thing - when you love your work, you don't mind putting in 15 hour days. It's joyful.

Two different things. Work is survival, and love sustains you. You have work anytime. But love? Not always.

Anything you ever make that matters takes a long time. Some artists never see their work in front of an audience, so for them 15 years is a blink of an eye. I am nothing but grateful.

Our faces will become works of art that our grandchildren will treasure.