I had a major bug for cities and for paintings and literature and all the things I thought went on in cities.

In college, I was a huge fan of 'Les Miserables.' I seem to remember that people who were into French literature preferred Hugo's poetry.

In graduate school, I was a student of E.L. Doctorow, and he had us read 'Moby-Dick' in a week.

I had one week in the fall of 1996 where I was like, 'I'm America's greatest living teenage poet.'

I was working my first adult job, a quasi journalistic job, writing content for a website. In the offices, we had banks of TVs, papers, a constant media stream, which was unusual for 2001.

Reading was not just an escape or a Band-Aid; it was a deep form of feeling seen and recognized, and being able to see and recognize other kindred spirits. My dad was a writer, too, which also likely had something to do with that.