Molly Ringwald

Molly Ringwald's newly released novel-in-stories is When It Happens to You.

From her Q & A with Lianne Stokes at Interview Magazine:

LIANNE STOKES: As a Brat Pack icon, is it a challenge for you to be taken seriously as an author? If so, how do you overcome that?

MOLLY RINGWALD: I don't have control over how people choose to perceive me. The only thing I have control over is my writing. I think that people who care about books and like the kind of books that I write will respond to it. I don't want people thinking it's a dishy celebrity book; that's not what I wrote.

STOKES: The title of your book, When It Happens to You, is telling: You're never too big to have someone betray you or to feel unloved. What inspired you to write about what you did?

RINGWALD: When I was thinking about the themes that connect us, love, hate... [laughs] If I could think of one thing that connects us all that's not talked about, it's betrayal. At my twins' preschool, I made two friends, and out of the three of us, I'm the only one who is happily married. The other two are now divorced as a result of cheating spouses. Everyone has been betrayed, turned on someone, or been their own worst enemy. I tried to write about betrayal from as many angles as I could understand.

STOKES: What struck me as profoundly sad was the moment one of your characters, a father, cheated, and his six-year-old daughter blamed her mother for what he had done.

RINGWALD: Yeah, I think kids do that. They...[read on]

Learn about Molly Ringwald's six favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue