Truly I never thought of myself as writing legal thrillers, and I still don't think I do. I write stories about women.

What I'm doing is writing stories about women who care about justice. They are women who think about the difference between right and wrong, what's legal and illegal, ethical and unethical, moral and immoral.

Crime and legal stories, broadly speaking, are just where my interest happens to lie.

I have more than 100 legal pads filled with handwriting. Eight novels, two books for children, countless stories and essays.

I just love stories, and I love movies, learning and seeing the world. Growing up in Iowa, it was like, you wanna see the world? Movies can help you do that.

I like discovering stories where I'm laughing and I'm learning. It's like, 'How was I never taught that in school?'

I discovered that in a story I could safely dream any dream, hope any hope, go anywhere I pleased any time I pleased, fight any foe, win or lose, live or die. My stories created a safe experimental learning place.

Once universities, rather than religious orders, were established as the key repositories of learning, women would find it ever harder to prove the pen as mighty as the sword.

The earliest memories I have of the ocean are actually stories - stories from my grandfather, the legendary ocean explorer and conservationist Jacques Cousteau. My passion for ocean conservation stems from learning at a very young age that we're all connected; we're all in this together.

I once took a workshop with Jim Shepard, and he has this term, 'rate-of-revelation,' that has come to mean a lot to me: 'the pace at which we're learning crucial emotional information about the stories' central figures.' An ever-increasing rate-of-revelation is good; a stagnant r-of-r is not.

I miss the early days; I do. I was so lucky. I basically had it to myself, learning about these chimpanzees. Nobody knew anything about them. Discovering their different personalities, different life histories. I was lucky.

A love of books, of holding a book, turning its pages, looking at its pictures, and living its fascinating stories goes hand-in-hand with a love of learning.

I have always believed that more stories of women in leadership roles need to be told and I am glad I could be a part of one such story.

Leadership is about encouraging women to break their silence and tell their stories to the world.

In 'The Beginning,' each one of us was introduced, but the audience didn't know our back stories and the drama. You wouldn't have known how deep Bhallaladeva's jealousy for Baahubali is.

It is disgusting that 'Life & Style' and 'InTouch' magazines continue to print these false stories about my life: the status of my marriage, false reports about a miscarriage, the horrible lie that my dad is not my biological father, jealousy over my sisters' lives, etc.

There is no question that creative intelligence comes not through learning things you find in books or histories that have already been written, but by focusing on and giving value to experience as it happens.

The Intelligence Committee will also examine present counterintelligence programs for the Department of Energy, the National Laboratories, and the Department of Defense.

For four years, I listened to stories of intelligence failures, and it wasn't due to incompetence of anyone in the system, but that the system is so arcane.

I've met my share of guys who have insulted and assaulted my intelligence with their stories and games. I say hello and goodbye!

With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. You know all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, and he's like, yeah, he's sure he can control the demon? Doesn't work out.

Our country is one of the youngest in the world. Our youngsters need to be told inspirational stories.

Traveling around the country, meeting fans and hearing their stories in person and on my radio show has reenergized my commitment to creating honest and inspirational content that not only serves my own creative purposes but can help and touch others as well.

There are thousands of inspirational stories waiting to be told about young women who yearn for a great education. They are stories of struggle and stories of success, and they will inspire others to take action and work to change lives.