"When I read the last page of this heartbreaking, funny, hopeful novel I went right back to the first page and read the whole book again! A beautiful movie star, a dreamy Italian man, a schlocky producer, an ambitious assistant, a rock star, a wannabe screenwriter, and Richard Burton all come together in the most winning way imaginable."

"This book is so important to me because of the way Kimmel puts into words how a happy, funny kid can still sense that there’s something wrong with all the adults around her. Haven Kimmel had a happy childhood in a small town, but her house was filled with the kind of tensions that children sense but can’t articulate."

"Read while directing Anne in Canada. A book that begins with two spirited sisters and a forward-thinking mother in a Mennonite community was always going to be irresistible to me. That it also encompasses musical prodigy, the prospect of assisted suicide, and the forthright, self-deprecation of its flawed and funny lead character made it even more so."

"The Book of Ecclesiastes probably inspired the opening line of Beckett’s first published novel (“The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.”) Not Beckett’s most important work (whatever that means) or his most influential, but the one I love the most, maybe because he hadn’t yet perfected his art, maybe because it’s funny and sad and brilliant."