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.

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

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 think Scotland is probably my spiritual home and I love it there very, very much.

I think there's a lot that we remember almost chemically, through our DNA.

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.

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.