Every woman who proves that it is not about gender but about excellence paves the way.

It's important for anyone working at a hyper growth company such as Airbnb to embrace learning and be open in order to keep pace with the changing environment.

In the morning, I look at my calendar and think about whether things that aren't critical can be moved to the next week.

I'm in bed by 10, but I may not actually go to sleep until 11. It doesn't take long. I just breathe in and out maybe 10 times, and that does it.

Every year, deans of admissions are pushed: 'Did you increase the number of applicants? Did you decrease the acceptance rate?' And it's an institutional priority for colleges and universities to look for students that are going to have a philanthropic family that could give to that school.

My mother passed away when I was 14, so there were certain things I missed in terms of upbringing. Maybe my mother would have said, 'You have to get a real job.' I don't know because I didn't have that experience. My fortes in school were Spanish, sports, reading and theater. That's what they encouraged.

I had a teacher who loved movies. He had a little theatre called The Flick, and he would let a bunch of us volunteer to work there, and he also let us make little movies in class.

The character I created, 'Commissario Brunetti,' who appears in all my books, shares similar reading, artistic and musical tastes with me. Subconsciously, I knew that if I was to spend however long it would take to write this book with him, this man would have to be someone I'd like to have dinner with.