I think working with the primal elements of fire and earth appealed greatly to my father because of the almost magical results.

My father had been an avid fan of Chaplin during the silent film days, but when the talkies came along, my father lost all interest in movies.

I'm not going to run around uselessly spending money. It's a matter of choosing your charity. Some people choose themselves. For me, that is not enough.

Pablo Picasso was generous. But he always signed and dedicated his gifts even when he knew that people would sell them because they needed the money.

For me, there's nothing better than getting immersed in a sprawling, epic, multi-generational family saga, and 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the most sprawling, epic, and multi-generational of them all.

As President Trump quickly moved to limit immigration, civil rights, and environmental protections, I felt fear for my young children, and guilt, too - as if I'd somehow betrayed the unspoken contract all parents make to give our children a better life than ourselves.

We don't tend to write about disease in fiction - not just teen novels but all American novels - because it doesn't fit in with our idea of the heroic romantic epic. There is room only for sacrifice, heroism, war, politics and family struggle.

Mum was very cool. Even though she came from a pretty affluent family, she was cool. She was really good, a very normal person.