History is absolutely my thing.

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

History is absolutely my thing.

I would not want to forget the first time I read The Lord of the Rings. I would never want to forget that! That was so magical to me, and that was a real eye-opening experience. I was probably 11 when I read that and already a reader, but I think that book really showed me how you can be transported and how your imagination can take you to a whole other place.

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.

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.