I was trying to make a novel about something no one wanted to read about into something they couldn't put down or look away from.

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.

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

The secret to being a rider in the hippodrome wasn't that you must be agile, or that you must be good with horses...It was that you must hide inside your costume a little of a killer's heart.

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 was trying to make a novel about something no one wanted to read about into something they couldn't put down or look away from.

Everyone would tell me they couldn't identify with sexual abuse. No one says they can't identify with the tales of the Greek gods and goddesses because they don't live on Mt. Olympus.