She felt some measure of relief knowing that in the very least, on the open road she would have some time to think.

If you want to write about people, you can make it up. But if you spend time talking to someone and examining what it is you want to write about, you discover a level of detail that you wouldn't have noticed otherwise.

I had grown up as a fan of Studs Terkel. In Chicago he sort of looms large and is mentioned often.

It's not that our family has no taste, it's just that our family's taste is inconsistent.

But there was something psychological happening there that was just a little bit different. And the other thing was, there was no stigma. Kids weren't going into the 'Center-for-Kids-That-Need-More-Help' or something like that. It was 826 Valencia.

It was called the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages. If not for the monks, everything the world had ever learned would have been lost. Well, we live in a similar time, when we're losing the vast majority of what we do and see and learn. But it doesn't have to be that way.

The house is a factory.