With kids, they force you to get out of bed. They force you to smile. They remind you of spontaneity.

Bruce Lee, before he fought, he would try to visualize how the fight would go, because he was visualizing a victorious path out of the combat.

My grandfather is Portuguese. He betrayed what was expected of him and married my grandmother of African descent on my father's side.

Magical realism as a declaration in the text is usually when someone can't speak and then they must be magically reinvigorated in some way.

I want a theory to come out to guide policy.

With kids, they force you to get out of bed. They force you to smile. They remind you of spontaneity.

People were always hungry, bullied, afraid, paranoid - so I just thought I'd show that in the novel in a kind of suffocating way.