I do no writing while I'm in Belgrade visiting my grandma.

When you're in a place, the details you focus on are different than details you focus on when you're writing about it.

In terms of people that I know, my grandmother and my mother are huge influences on my writing life because they are both massively supportive and always have been of my career.

When I hit a block, regardless of what I am writing, what the subject matter is, or what's going on in the plot, I go back and I read Pablo Neruda's poetry. I don't actually speak Spanish, so I read it translation. But I always go back to Neruda. I don't know why, but it calms me, calms my brain.

I grew up in Cyprus and Egypt, these fantastic places I remember fondly.

I've always written about animals. I'm still trying to process why that is.