The least likely of military leaders, Joan of Arc changed the course of the Hundred Years' War and of history.

For years, the place I really lived - the world I watched, the one I thought and wrote about - was 15th-century France.

I have at last admitted that not only was I angry with my mother, but, in fact, I wanted to destroy her as a child. And I was so concerned to be a woman who was different from my mother that I had this vast architecture of rules.

I was the good girl who never needed disciplining, who made straight A's. I applied and was accepted to Stanford University.

The shopping centres that have come up in Noida are amazing. There are amusement parks and other good family outing spots.

I think a lot of people assume you need to be born into a special creative family to have a career as a writer. So I never thought it would happen for me.

I write songs when I need to. That's how I write songs: when there's something that's bugging me. If something's troubling me, and I don't really know how to articulate it to people directly - my friends, my family, or my girlfriend - then I'll write a song about it because I know I can articulate it that way.

Beware the cute, hot guy who kind of reminds you of the parent you don't get along with: your cold, distant father who left when you were a kid or your hot-tempered mother whom you could never please.