There's just something hypnotic about maps.

Even before you understand them, your brain is drawn to maps.

For me, it started as a child with one of those little wooden jigsaw maps of the U.S., where's there's crocodiles on Florida and apples on Washington state. That was my very first map.

It's so much fun that the money is just icing on the cake. There seems to be a lot of icing.

You live overseas, you see these exotic places and you want to know about them. But, weirdly, it also made me homesick for all these very prosaic places in America.

I'm an immigrant and I've always wanted to write something about America.