Writers aren't born, they're made - from practice, reading, and a lot of caffeine.

The myth works to make the very real things people don't want to look at visible for them.

My interest in women's voices started when I was in the boys' choir and we were singing in opera choruses. That was my first close-up experience with the female soprano voice. I was amazed at how it could be within the same scale but so different in quality.

The idea of a talent that was bigger than an artist's ability to choose to use it, that would dictate the artist's life more than the artist could dictate, was interesting to me.

One of my big inspirations was Céleste Mogador. She was a courtesan who wrote her memoirs in order to pay off her debts, which is a hilarious gesture.

Each source that I read, I would look through the bibliography and the footnotes, and use that as a map for the next thing I would read.

I've been told it's hard to write about singing. I didn't realize that going into it. I might not have tried if I knew!