I loved the atmosphere of the dance studios - the wooden floors, the big mirrors, everyone dressed in pink or black tights, the musicians accompanying us - and the feeling of ritual the classes had.

I still feel conflicted because I don't always get to spend as much time with my daughter as I'd like, given my work.

Don't make a threat and then not do it.

Girls are crazy and mean. They don't fight fair.

Writing in other voices is almost Japanese in the sense that theres a certain formality there which allows me to sidestep the embarrassment of directly expressing to complete strangers the most intimate details of my life.

I had some fears as a kid, but I was also relatively fearless. Maybe that's a result of living half the time in reality and the other half in fantasy.

I was always inventing characters and making up stories.