Growing up, I was afraid of the dark.

When I was growing up, I wanted to be a tennis player.

Very good female characters, that's all we want. It's happening, slow and steady, which I love. Hopefully, it gets a little quicker. Fast and steady, how about that? Either way, we want more good females.

I'm drawn to interesting female characters and good storylines.

I had lived with my mother in anger and love - I suppose most daughters do - but my children only knew her in one way: As the lady who thought they were smarter than Albert Einstein. As the lady who thought they wrote better than William Shakespeare. As the lady who thought every picture they drew was a Rembrandt.

Mothers, unless they were very poor, didn't work. Both of my parents had to leave education. My mother had to work in a cotton mill until 18 or 19, when she took some training in domestic science.

My grandparents came from a typical Marathi family, where they respect the value of rules and regulations.

I was the most Australian child ever in the world, even though my home was in Africa.