Growing up, I never knew that Raffi turned down celebrity endorsements, TV shows, and specials and refused to make merchandise, but it makes sense given how I think about him: My memories are limited to his voice through the record player and the album covers I stared at.

As a journalist, you don't tend to interview people with a view to becoming their friend. You can't expect that. It's not professional.

I've written about women's lives, and I just want to write about them from being a woman. I don't need feminism on top of that when I'm writing.

I didn't study English literature - I studied philosophy at university - so Kierkegaard, Nietzsche - these people are among the most important writers to me. So my interest is in the big questions more than it is in storytelling.

When you live in a world of imagination, your imagination doesn't necessarily grow old with you.

I really just want to be a writer and a storyteller. But maybe pain is one of the things you have to feel in order to be creative.

A great danger, or at least a great temptation, for many writers is to become too autobiographical in their approach to their fiction. A little autobiography and a lot of imagination are best.

Growing up the way that I did - I grew up with a lot of cousins - you just have this imagination, and I love going and telling different stories. I'm a clown.