In terms of style, I think the memoirist should have a novelist's skill and all the elements of a novelist's toolbox. When I read a memoir, I want to really, deeply experience what the author experienced. I want to see the characters and hear the way they speak and understand how they think. And so in that way, writing a memoir feels similar to writing a novel.

I understood that the stories we believe have power over us. They work into our bodies and minds and change us from inside out. What if one day these stories become something stronger, more real, than fairy tales?

When I was little, I went to a Catholic school and was required to go to church every morning and with my parents on Sundays, so I spent a lot of time sitting on a wooden pew. Angels are sort of a relief. If you're looking around, the other imagery is so dark and heavy. Looking at the beautifully rendered pictures of angels was more uplifting.

If there are too many cooks in the kitchen, the dish is not going to work out.

Since the Middle Ages, people have been writing about angels. Angelology was actually at one point a scholastic discipline.

Even the good angels, I think, would inspire in humans some sort of fear.

I taught myself to write in order to understand who I was and so yes, writing was an act of self-actualization in the beginning.