History releases me from my own experience and jogs my fictional imagination. 
The past always sort of haunts us and perhaps inspires us in some ways.
As writers, we don't just need to write about poverty or war or the immigrant experience.
I feel like if writers used writing as therapy we'd have a ton of happy writers.
Sometimes you stop seeing what the person is to the world. You only see what the person is to you. 
While I am very much Jewish 'identified,' I'm not a very religious person. 
I feel sometimes like a book tour is a slow series of humiliations and that if you're strong you'll come out of it OK. 
The birth mother is placing the baby out of love. I still believe that. Well, the ones we've dealt with who were actually pregnant, anyway. 