I saw things at an early age because my mom was a theater actress. I did a play with her when I was 10 years old.

My mom would give me a piece to play but I wouldn't do any theory because when it came time to do it I would sneak back upstairs and watch TV. So I had these kind of nonchalant lessons for years then it just started soaking in.

I was born in Texas and I lived there 'till I was 8. Then I moved to the Dominican Republic with my mom lived there for two years and forgot every word of English I knew.

My mom used to take me down to the Jersey Shore when I was 7 8 9 years old. I can remember being down in that area - Belmar Seaside Heights Asbury Park and all those places that I went back and revisited.

Over the years my mom has become a self-taught Biblical scholar.

My mom is like this hard-core liberal feminist. She's a professor in Boston and she's been teaching women's studies for 30 years and international politics.

One of my most sentimental items is my grandmother's engagement ring that my mom gave me a few years ago. It's a Victorian-style setting that's closed in the back so it doesn't sparkle the way diamonds do now. I wear it as a pendant.

I shoplifted. I was about five years old and I took a candy from a store. We paid for three of them but I took four and I went home and cried. My mom took me back and I paid for the missing piece.

I grew up painting and playing piano so when I was a little kid I thought I was going to be an artist or a painter but my mom had me taking piano lessons for about 10-12 years as a young kid.

I could never have pictured myself writing a book when I was 25 years old. My mom was an English teacher but I wasn't that way growing up.