When you have people who get angry quickly, you have to learn the rules to avoid being in that situation.

Every fictional thing I wrote gave me strength to write another and another. By the end I wasn't remaining true to anything but the story I wanted to tell.

You write the facts as you see them, and there isn't a lull with a lot of description. No wonder people like to write about murder mysteries and dead bodies!

It also signals to me, when I pick up a pencil, that this is a rough draft. This is not going anywhere, and no one's going to see it. You have permission to make all the mistakes you want. It signals freedom to me, and it signals mistakes.

To go back to my childhood, I experienced lots of different family cultures, all the while feeling like none of them were mine.

I definitely feel that my brain works differently, and words come out differently, if I have a pencil in my hand, rather than if I have a keyboard.

There are certain tribes in the middle Sepik that eat raw bat. A certain kind of raw bat is a delicacy.