I have not been to Cuba, though if you count the stories my grandma told me growing up, I've been there in my head many times. I think someday I will see it, when things are different there, but I've come to feel like I really am a Miami girl.

When I left for college, my mom really latched on to the dog; She started buying him little outfits and calling him our brother, but that's as far as it got.

While my college had done an excellent job recruiting me, I had no road map for what I was supposed to do once I made it to campus.

It seems disrespectful to my parents who left... to hear their story over and over again which always ends with... 'and I'll never go back as long as anyone in the Castro family is in power.' Well, what happens if you can go back? Would you want to see things?

I believed in fictional characters as if they were a part of real life. Poetry was important, too. My parents had memorized poems from their days attending school in New York City and loved reciting them. We all enjoyed listening to these poems and to music as well.

The idea was always going to be that each year is a stand-alone story, which did make it easier on some level. It also requires the network to have the creative imagination to say, 'This is also 'Fargo,' you know what I mean?

During college, in Los Angeles, I interned all over Hollywood. Development roles appealed to me; they were a perfect blend of business and creativity.

Life and people are complex. A writer as an artist doesn't have the personality of a politician. We don't see the world that simply.