We're naturally afraid of a spider - these are memories that are being chemically passed down through your DNA.

I personally love books that make me think, so I naturally gravitate toward writing a book like that, one that's going to make someone think and make me think.

I think [it's necessary to accept] things that are just true about yourself: These are my faults, these are the things I'm good at, this is where I came from, this is where I didn't come from. I think happy people are the ones who have made peace with those truths and acknowledged them, and learned to use them and live with them.

Your truth really can't be twisted. It is what it is. That doesn't mean that a person can't develop and change and reinterpret their life.

History is absolutely my thing.

I'll tell you what I was most surprised to discover about my writing process, and that is that I never know what I'm doing.

I think the past is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about, not only what is different about the past but what's the same, and what links us to the past.