When I was thinking about all the things that the world had forgotten, it made me think about people who have actually really forgotten everything, and how much of our identity is wrapped up in those memories, and how much of our experience makes us who we are, and remembering those experiences makes us who we are.

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

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.

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 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'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.

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.