The academy is an incredibly sheltered world, and I do think it's important for writers to get out from under that shelter, at least for a while, to see what the world looks like from outside it.

I do think that calling a book nonfiction affirms a kind of responsibility to an attempt at truth.

I realized, that the life of a musician, even of a very lucky, very successful musician, wasn't really the life I wanted: I hate travel, I hate living out of suitcases, I hate the constant anxiety of being on stage.

Whenever I go to New York I try to soak up as much live music as I can, including as many nights at the opera as I can manage.

For me, music was always a second language. I didn't have a musical background, and I started studying very late, at fourteen.

My first months in Sofia were a time of intense disorientation: I had never been to that part of the world before; I could barely speak the language; everything seemed strange to me.

Being a high school teacher was wonderful, but unsustainable: I needed a way out.