“I started to write things down, as a very young child, wanting to find...” — Anne Michaels Quote

I started to write things down, as a very young child, wanting to find a way to remember - to keep close, somehow - moments that made an impression on me.

Certain things can't be approximated, so I'm always interested in getting in another way, one which makes the reader bend in closer to the scene even if that scene, especially if that scene, is painful... Brutal language isn't necessarily the most truthful way of describing a brutal moment.

As any parent knows, part of your mind is always engaged - wondering and worrying that everything is okay and calculating all the stuff that has to get done in the course of a day. When the children are asleep in their beds, I can go where I really need to go in my head.

I'm not being naive; I realise there's no such thing as a pure reading. But I'd rather keep myself as far out of it as I can.

We have a few young people who are very successful in it, and this gives us the wrong impression that the whole country can live off high tech.

As for my opponents, we look for fights that will push me and create a good impression with the fans that didn't follow me in kickboxing.

My parents voted conservative for as long as I could remember, so it was an easy decision when I registered at 18 to register as a Republican. In fact, I've often told people I was under the impression that everybody voted Republican.

'Beautiful' was something that I kept really close to my heart, that I kept from a lot of people for years and years. It's my story. And I think that was the first impression I needed to give to people as a solo artist. This is who I am; this is what I'm about.