"But the Garis children had been brought up to believe that “a good person is happy; a happy person is good.” For Leslie to admit her family was unhappy would have constituted a flaw in character. Nonetheless, she became a precociously perceptive observer and eavesdropper.
"And Roger [her father], cursed by having a writer’s temperament but not enough talent to succeed or enough stamina to sustain disappointment, began taking barbiturates and showing more and more signs of clinical depression.
"When she was 14, [Leslie] Garis read one of Roger Garis’s plays — about a 13-year-old girl who kills herself to save her father — and was disturbed by her dawning realization of what a powerful hold she had upon his imagination. Convinced it was her responsibility to hold her father together, [Leslie] Garis was unable to confront him."
- House of Happy Endings
"What subversive creature could dream up a universe in which vampires and werewolves put marriage ahead of carnage on their to-do lists? The answer, of course, is a writer of steamy occult romantic thrillers who happens to be a wholesome Mormon mother of three — a category of one, solely occupied by Stephenie Meyer. The author is well aware of the jarring contradiction between her real and imaginary lives. On stepheniemeyer.com, her Web site (created to satisfy her ravening fans), she admits, “I have been asked more than once, ‘What’s a nice Mormon girl like you doing writing about vampires?’ ” Lucky for her, while her religion’s teachings may frown on caffeine and alcohol for humans, the Word of Wisdom has a flexible attitude toward human blood for monsters; and there’s no ban on big love in the mythical world."
- Eclipse
"And Roger [her father], cursed by having a writer’s temperament but not enough talent to succeed or enough stamina to sustain disappointment, began taking barbiturates and showing more and more signs of clinical depression.
"When she was 14, [Leslie] Garis read one of Roger Garis’s plays — about a 13-year-old girl who kills herself to save her father — and was disturbed by her dawning realization of what a powerful hold she had upon his imagination. Convinced it was her responsibility to hold her father together, [Leslie] Garis was unable to confront him."
- House of Happy Endings
"What subversive creature could dream up a universe in which vampires and werewolves put marriage ahead of carnage on their to-do lists? The answer, of course, is a writer of steamy occult romantic thrillers who happens to be a wholesome Mormon mother of three — a category of one, solely occupied by Stephenie Meyer. The author is well aware of the jarring contradiction between her real and imaginary lives. On stepheniemeyer.com, her Web site (created to satisfy her ravening fans), she admits, “I have been asked more than once, ‘What’s a nice Mormon girl like you doing writing about vampires?’ ” Lucky for her, while her religion’s teachings may frown on caffeine and alcohol for humans, the Word of Wisdom has a flexible attitude toward human blood for monsters; and there’s no ban on big love in the mythical world."
- Eclipse