Probably I chose immortality because mortality is a universal human obsession.

Fear of the unknown is a terrible fear.

The contradictions are what make human behavior so maddening and yet so fascinating, all at the same time.

Each time, storytellers clothed the naked body of the myth in their own traditions, so that listeners could relate more easily to its deeper meaning.

It doesn't matter. I'm not asking forever of you...just let me love you now.

Here was a fragment of Goddess myth that, through all its permutations, had somehow escaped being turned on its head. It was the perfect springboard for the sort of novel I wanted to write.

To be alive was to be disappointed. You tried and failed and kept on trying, never knowing whether you'd ever get what you wanted. But sometimes we get what we need.