I am more than happy to invite my five favorite fictional characters. Let's see. First on my list is Sam Gamgee from The Lord of The Rings. Sam is a beautiful character; in him, we find the profound heroism of an ordinary person. He epitomizes the saying that courage isn't not being afraid, courage is going anyway. I just love that.

I absolute adore epic journeys that require a protagonist to fight for every victory in the hopes of finding triumph.

To be honest, I wrote so many drafts of this book [ The Nightingale ] and changed the characters so many times; the real surprise is that I finished the book at all.

The only truth was whatever you could make someone believe.

I love women being the heroes of the piece. There is just something so dramatic and important about this story [The Nightingale ].

I love the idea of ordinary women making extraordinary sacrifices.

I read a ton of fiction - historical, contemporary, literary, commercial, I love it all.