Gabrielle Zevin

My grandparents used to bring me books every time they saw me.

I hadn't ever felt any particular calling to be a novelist, and I clearly remember telling a friend of mine about six months before I started work on 'Elsewhere' that I would never write a novel.

I myself am mixed race - my mother is Korean, and my father is an American Jew - so I've always felt other.

It took me realizing that a broken heart has never actually killed anyone to find the courage to ask for what I want, in just about every situation. That was part of my own growing up.

I wanted to be a teacher, but I was a lousy student, one of the slowest readers. It was a tremendous struggle. But I'm lucky I had some teachers who saw something in me.

Another thing that freaks me out is time. Time is like a book. You have a beginning, a middle and an end. It's just a cycle.