My mom makes this amazing little snack that, to this day, I still think about. It's pita bread wrapped with melted butter, feta cheese, and cucumbers. That, to me, is still heaven. It's my childhood.

While some mothers sing lullabies to their children, my mother read me poetry. And to this day, I associate my strongest and most insistent feelings with words lyrically organized on a page.

Although I was calm as a child, I had this restlessness about me–this need and hunger to create my own world. Poetry filled that void, and its words fed that vital necessity of ownership.

We fall in love forever many times, and many times we die.

There's a condensed softness about the Albanian people, and I've witnessed examples of their hospitality.

I didn't even know what acting was at 11 years old. I truly believed that acting was hidden cameras everywhere. And I felt that these actors on the screen were somehow real people.

As a poet and as an actress, we're taught to be far more elaborate with our words and - I wouldn't say generalize, but definitely stronger with our choices.