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.

I am very interested in place, and the influences of place on characters.

My road to publishing actually came through a colleague who connected me to my agent, and the faculty at Cornell was very supportive.

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

You never know what's going to happen in your life, and you never know what's going to happen in someone else's life either.