I'm not trying to be coy, but I think everyone notices these things like skin color but some people are more aware that they are noticing them than others, maybe. If that makes sense.

My fear was like a stray dog, roving the neighborhood of my life, looking for a new source of worry.

I didn't read about it for school. It was just for myself. I was interested in cults in general but Jonestown was the most interesting of all the cults I studied.

I'm felt I was writing about love and desire and community and belonging and grief and a whole host of other issues. But race is never far from the surface.

I was influenced growing up by everything from Harlequin romances to Fedor Dostoyevsky and Albert Camus, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and later Lydia Davis, Mary Gaitskill, bell hooks.

I definitely feel like when I write a book it's not my job to police or guide the readers. The book and the characters don't belong to me anymore. If that makes sense.

I'm increasingly less interested in classic storylines and that arc that we have come to expect.

Motherhood. It was hard to get lost in anything else completely when children were 3 years old.

I guess the subject of race is so natural to me I never think of it as hefty. It's something I talk about and joke about and discuss with my loved ones every day of my life.

I don't like stories that are too neat and too resolved. I think resolutions can be deadening for the reader.

I think cults never stop being interesting and I'm intrigued by how we all do a tiny bit of submitting to a larger group - and how they can sneak up on you.

The more you Learn, The more you earn

paradise seemed further away than India, but Hell had become a bit closer

Authentic leadership is about leading from the core of who we are to inspire each of us to our best contribution toward a shared mission.

I am immortal till my work is accomplished

Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present, which very few of us do.

Greek philosophy seems to have met with something with which a good tragedy is not supposed to meet, namely, a dull ending.

There was something in her movements that made you think she never walked but always danced.

I'm very eclectic in my music tastes - anything from Nina Simone to Beethoven to Talvin Singh.

To make knowledge valuable, you must have the cheerfulness of wisdom.

All musicians are potential band leaders.