I grew up around so many beautiful things. My mother's jewelry and purses - they're very much statement pieces. Again, that sort of over-the-top Russian thing where it looks like treasure. I always say to my husband, you don't ever have to get me another piece of jewelry. When your mother is this amazing woman, a North Star, sometimes you want a simpler presentation of yourself.

In the past I've always been the type of person to try and fit a square peg in a round hole. I can be very tenacious like that. But since I've had my daughter, I've found that I like the way life unfolds when I give the universe some space to guide me. It took me until my forties to realize that.

Everything is in our cellular level. My mom's is definitely in my cellular memory.

If I walk into my house and something is askew, I can't do anything until I fix it. It's so burdensome to live that way.

Pure memory isn't based on recall but rather involuntary memory that's in your body and your nerves.

Falling in love for the first time, and then the heartbreak of having it end, is difficult, but I don't think it would ever hurt as much as when my mother was killed in the boating accident. I feel a part of my heart has already been broken, and that place is reserved for mother.

Everything in your life is there to teach you something; you can be awake to it or asleep to it. I can't remember which master said this, but he said, when the monsters are coming, you have to let them eat cake. Feed them. The more you invite them in, the less scary they become.