I grew up in South Africa and I would look at maps and we were at the bottom of the world. There was this whole thing up there. I was always reading encyclopedias about the world. So travel was something I was always attracted to.

The hardest thing was learning to write. I was 13 and the only writing I had done was for Social Studies. It consisted of copying passages right out of the encyclopedia.

Personally I would sooner have written Alice in Wonderland than the whole Encyclopedia Britannica.

In a sense words are encyclopedias of ignorance because they freeze perceptions at one moment in history and then insist we continue to use these frozen perceptions when we should be doing better.

My dad sold encyclopedias and my mom worked in a factory office.

I really love rap music. I grew up in the '80s and '90s with Public Enemy N.W.A. LL Cool J - I'm a hip-hop encyclopedia. But I got kind of frustrated with the chauvinistic side of rap music the one that makes it hard to write songs about love and relationships.