I think a lot, so I don't spend a lot of time actually writing - I do that part very quickly. That helps, for me. To keep track of the characters.

There are other sources, but Wikipedia is a good start.

Every new thing is a result of everything you wrote before.

There is no right and wrong, and precepts are for fools. Every thing is just as it is! And we must experience things without condemning them, because if we condemn them, then we are becoming too involved.

War defined my entire childhood and youth and most of my adulthood too - and in the US, it continues to do so.

Sri Lanka is a small island, and the war affected everybody. Everybody knew somebody who was killing or being killed.

Fiona McCrae is a really amazing editor. Really smart and very astute about what a story needs.