A family has its own rituals and its own superstitions.

We're all entitled to our superstitions.

death should be celebrated...when you put something in the ground you always know where it is

My road to publishing actually came through a colleague who connected me to my agent, and the faculty at Cornell was very supportive.

The dead are celebrated. The dead are loved. They give something to the living. Once you put something into the ground, Doctor, you always know where to find it.

At the end of the day, despite all the other great things that literature does in society and in a person's life, I think that we read to escape. And I think that place, more than anything, provides that escape quickly, if an author is engaged with the place.

I grew up in Cyprus and Egypt, these fantastic places I remember fondly.