I think of myself as Rebecca Wells from Lodi Plantation, in Central Louisiana, a girl who was lucky enough to be born into a family that encouraged creativity and didn't call me lazy or nuts when I dressed up in my mother's peignoirs and played the piano, having painted a small sign decorated in glitter that read 'The Piano Fairy Girl.

But who has time to write memoirs? I’m still living my memoirs.

Life is short but it is wide. This too shall pass.

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

Forget love. Try good manners.

It's life. You don't figure it out. You just climb up on the beast and ride.

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.