I've heard of nothing coming from nothing, but I've never heard of absolutely nothing coming from hard work.

I was pursuing the arts with theater in school, and I was doing after-school activities, but not in any real movement towards a professional career.

I used to be a huge fan of 'Lockup' on MSNBC, and that certainly has helped with my understanding of the world.

I ran track in high school very competitively, and then ran it D-1 at Boston University. I ran there on an athletic scholarship and chose BU because they had both a good track program and an arts program.

The whole trick is to make it feel like you're spying on real people's lives as they get through the day. When I'm writing, I have to trick myself as a writer. If I consciously say, 'I'm writing,' I feel all this pressure and somehow it doesn't feel as real as when it doesn't seem to count as much.

The Atlantic' really gave me my writing career - even just the conviction to be a writer.

The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future.

I use a lot of film images, analogies, and imagination.