I'm a history person, and I love the groundedness of that, of being able to go, "Yes! People acted like that."

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.

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

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.

It occurred to me at some point that what really links us to the past is memory, and there's so much we've forgotten.

I am very into genealogy and heritage, and that's how I started writing.

I love getting into the basement of a courthouse, and all the dusty records - all that stuff makes me really happy.