The most obvious difference between writing novels and memoirs is that my memoirs are true stories, and explore certain experiences I've lived, and thus operate within the boundaries of memory and fact.

I believe a good memoir should have all of the narrative elements of a novel: character development, dialogue, descriptive language, and metaphor.

If I'm not writing, I'm not fully living. It has become the essential element that defines who I am.

I'm sure that growing up in the Midwest played a role in my chronic escapism. In fact, before I lived in France, I lived in Japan, England, and Bulgaria. I was determined to experience other places and cultures, particularly because I had the perception that I'd been cut off from these experiences as a child.

When we are no longer capable of love, we are no longer alive.

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.