You might not remember what you had for dinner last night, but you remember everything about one particular summer of your youth. It's like that.

No one's memory is infallible, of course - quite the opposite.

You write about experiences partly to understand what they mean, partly not to lose them to time. To oblivion. But there's always the danger of the opposite happening. Losing the memory of the experience itself to the memory of writing about it.

There's a lot of material from my life in my books, but they're not really autobiographical, in the sense that they're not about my life. So, in 'A Feather on the Breath of God' I write about my parents, I write about this Russian immigrant, I write about the world of dance, but it isn't an autobiography; so much is left out.

I just love music - by no stretch of the imagination am I professionally competent.

One of the amazing things about September 11 is that we lacked the imagination to connect the dots and foresee it.

Against expectations I was charmed by Gehry's Edgemar development, which housed the Santa Monica Museum of Art, and positively awed by the Bilbao Guggenheim. That Gehry is a great artist I have no doubt, but talent and determination are no warrant against confusion, nor are they a guaranty to produce great art.

When I was a little girl, I did not listen to music much. I did not think that one day I would become a rapper. I was born in a very traditional and religious family. Being a female was destroying my dreams. Slowly, first through poetry and then music, I began to find ways to share my thoughts and feelings, talk to my family and to the world.