I want to lay up like that, to float unstructured, without ambition or anxiety. I want to inhabit my life like a porch.

I come to writing from hearing great stories as a child in Louisiana, where the mark of a person was his or her ability to be a raconteur. I also come to writing as a professional actress whose body has been trained to listen and smell and inhabit characters without judgment.

You know how some people, when they're together, they somehow make you feel more hopeful? Make you feel like the world is not the insane place it really is?

I believe that illness has led me to a life of gratitude, so I consider Lyme disease at this point in my life to be a blessing in disguise.

There is the truth of history, and there is the truth of what a person remembers.

I swear I could write a book about all the things no one has ever thanked me for.

Sadness can find you anywhere, anytime, so you better have fun when you can.