Capo, my first golden retriever, so loved to swim she once jumped off a cliff to get into Lake Superior.

I love to sing. I'm a soprano.

Write what you care about.

I had wanted to write Ghost Country for a long time, but it wouldn't work.

My parents were liberal intellectuals but even they expected me to stay at home and look after my younger siblings and do the housework.

I look at the great poets of the Soviet Union, like Anna Akhmatova, who endured far worse then anything we've seen or hopefully that we will ever see. If they could keep writing and keep a voice alive, keep people hopeful through their poetry, then I would be ashamed to stop and to give in. It would be really self-indulgent, unacceptable, and inexcusable to walk away from it.

If you're born lucky, you don't have to be good.