I personally love books that make me think, so I naturally gravitate toward writing a book like that, one that's going to make someone think and make me think.
Your truth really can't be twisted. It is what it is. That doesn't mean that a person can't develop and change and reinterpret their life.
We're naturally afraid of a spider - these are memories that are being chemically passed down through your DNA.
I tend to be a very logical, practical person.
I think [it's necessary to accept] things that are just true about yourself: These are my faults, these are the things I'm good at, this is where I came from, this is where I didn't come from. I think happy people are the ones who have made peace with those truths and acknowledged them, and learned to use them and live with them.
I'm a history person, and I love the groundedness of that, of being able to go, "Yes! People acted like that."
I don't think I've ever done anything that's completely the same, yet.
I would never say that I'm not going to do something. I like not being limited.
I'll tell you what I was most surprised to discover about my writing process, and that is that I never know what I'm doing.
I think there's a lot that we remember almost chemically, through our DNA.
I think Scotland is probably my spiritual home and I love it there very, very much.
I would not give up a lot of what I know about my heritage. I would not give up knowing where I came from, the good parts and the bad parts.
I do think a lot about the past.
History is absolutely my thing.
I am very into genealogy and heritage, and that's how I started writing.
I love getting into the basement of a courthouse, and all the dusty records - all that stuff makes me really happy.
I think the past is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about, not only what is different about the past but what's the same, and what links us to the past.
It occurred to me at some point that what really links us to the past is memory, and there's so much we've forgotten.
When I was thinking about all the things that the world had forgotten, it made me think about people who have actually really forgotten everything, and how much of our identity is wrapped up in those memories, and how much of our experience makes us who we are, and remembering those experiences makes us who we are.
I would not want to forget the first time I read The Lord of the Rings. I would never want to forget that! That was so magical to me, and that was a real eye-opening experience. I was probably 11 when I read that and already a reader, but I think that book really showed me how you can be transported and how your imagination can take you to a whole other place.
I never have the feeling that I actually know what I'm doing or anything that I'm writing is any good.
