I find coming up with a title the hardest part of writing a novel.

I like to run in a new place to help me find my way around.

If my characters travel somewhere, I generally write about a place I know to give the scenes more authenticity.

I kept a journal when I was a teenager, so I definitely look back on those to see how I dealt with friends and cliques and getting picked on, or boyfriend breakups.

I grew up in a family that nearly lost everything, but I ended up in the United States Senate because I grew up in an America that invested in kids like me and built a real future for us.

Coming to Australia, it was just really magical for me. It just had the wow factor of a different sort of place and, more so, just being with a family that wanted to love me and to have me, because I knew back then, before coming to Australia, there was no way of getting back home or finding my real family.

My family have shaped my politics more than anything else.

As every parent knows, children begin life as uninhibited, unabashed explorers of the unknown. From the time we can walk and talk, we want to know what things are and how they work - we begin life as little scientists.