If we grew up with nothing, we're complicated with that. That's the thing I keep hearing from people.

How do we live the writer's life? There's only one simple answer: 'we write.'

When I was growing up, I had no idea that I could possibly become a writer. I wrote endlessly in journals - a practice I maintained for a long time, well into the writing life I had no idea I could ever have.

The only graceful thing to do is recognize and embrace what is actually happening, rather than fight against it.

If we grew up with nothing, we're complicated with that. That's the thing I keep hearing from people.

Devotion, as it relates to the title of my memoir, means fidelity - as in fidelity to a person or a practice. I think it's certainly possible to feel devotion without having faith, at least in the religious sense of the word.

Strange - I'm not much of a film person. I love watching films, but they don't stay with me the way books do. Stranger still, because my husband is a screenwriter!