From the age of 40, I went through illness for four and a half years. I tried to keep working through it as much as I could, but I was physically not able to do it as much, and if you look sick, it's hard to get a job.

Animals weren't put on this earth to entertain us.

I'm grateful for anything that brings me back to Colorado.

I was the kind of kid, I'd sit in the back row of the class with my head practically under the desk. I was incredibly afraid of people and very shy.

The principle of plural marriage was revealed to the Mormons amid much secrecy. Dark clouds hovered over the church in the early 1840s, after rumors spread that its founder, Joseph Smith, had taken up the practice of polygamy. While denying the charge in public, by 1843 Smith had shared a revelation with his closest disciples.

My dad's gay experiences really had a very positive influence on me and my straight relationships - how to better accept all the weirdness and ambiguity and ups and downs and paradoxes. I knew from the beginning I was writing about love.

I never even had a bachelorhood: I went straight from my parents' home to a marriage.

We are very puritan in America. We still hold true to these really antiquated values, this idea of the sanctity of marriage.