Too much information, and yet, in her case, not enough. In a world of diminishing mystery, the unknown persists.

It was important to me to become day-to-day fluent and functional in another language, and about 10 years ago, I went to Rome for the first time and felt an instant gut connection and wanted to get to know the city.

A lot of my upbringing was about denying or fretting or evading.

A lot of my personality was informed by feeling very different in the world I grew up in, feeling that I didn't fully belong, that my parents didn't belong.

The essential dilemma of my life is between my deep desire to belong and my suspicion of belonging.

I think, like any artist or any writer, I just want to have that pure freedom of expression and of thought - the freedom to explore and move in unexpected ways.