Sapphire on her novel "Precious"

“I really wanted to show a young woman who changes her life without falling in love and without getting married, and without plastic surgery or a physical change.”
In other words, she didn’t want Precious to succeed via some sort of near magical and unlikely intervention, like losing a hundred pounds and actually looking like Cinderella. “I wanted to show how somebody can take concrete steps and work on her deficiencies and move her life forward,” she said, “which is what millions of women are going to have to do.”
“She doesn’t achieve this through romance,” Sapphire said, “or through finding a boyfriend, or losing a hundred pounds, but through literacy, some friends, her loving relationship with her child. That’s why it’s the cultural event of the season.”
from the NY Times interview(via mhight