I would not give up a lot of what I know about my heritage. I would not give up knowing where I came from, the good parts and the bad parts.

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

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

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

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

I would not give up a lot of what I know about my heritage. I would not give up knowing where I came from, the good parts and the bad parts.