Franschhoek - French Corner - is a place which serves South Africans as a kind of sophisticated fantasy, an alternative version of what life could be. The small town is enclosed by wild mountains, at this time of year blue and dusty green.

A small town is a place where there's no place to go where you shouldn't.

Maycomb was a tired old town, even in 1932 when I first knew it. Somehow, it was hotter then. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon after their three o'clock naps. And by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frosting from sweating and sweet talcum. The day was twenty-four hours long, but it seemed longer. There's no hurry, for there's nowhere to go and nothing to buy...and no money to buy it with.

I grew up in a really small town, so it wasn't really a fashion-forward place, and it was very casual.

I grew up in a really small town with not a lot of money, and I liked singing, but it was just something that was a hobby.

I grew up around the corner from my grandparents' dairy farm, which was three miles outside of a small town called Phoenix.