When I was growing up in New York City, my father was a taxi driver for a time.

Sometimes I think opposable thumbs were invented so teenage girls could use text messaging.

I believe that the female perspective is a very healing and circumspect one, and we have a right to equal voice.

Are we asking terribly much of people to be curious and interested in the female experience from the female perspective?

This was nostalgia in the literal Greek sense: the pain of not being able to return to one's home and family.

When I was a little girl, my family was extremely close, loving and really happy, and then overnight, things just became a nightmare, and instead of them becoming a nightmare and getting better, they became a nightmare and just kept getting worse.

I actually grew up with people from all over the world. There wasn't enough of a difference to feel different from anybody else. Their grandmother hollered at me like my grandmother hollered at all the kids when anybody did anything wrong. And their parents did the same thing.

I was always very dramatic - my family would probably use the word 'dramatic' - as a child; always putting on performances, making everyone come watch, and pay to watch. I was very business-savvy as a child.