"The best book I’ve ever received came from my sister. It was a special edition of The Secret World of Og, by Pierre Berton, a book our mother had read to my sister, brother and I one summer when we were children. The book is about four children who discover a secret passageway in their playhouse floor, leading to an underground world, Og. I must have dreamt about the story each night after she read it to us, because my memories of the book are as vivid and three-dimensional as if I had been one of the children in the story. My own children have read the edition my sister gave me, and they loved it, too. At our cottage, the access to the basement is through a door in the floor; it reminded my children and I so much of the book that we named the crawl space “Og.” One day, I hope to read this book to my grandchildren."

"Pulp Fiction was probably one of the first films I ever saw that really kind of took effect on me. I was about four years old — obviously wasn’t supposed to be seeing that film; my sister kind of sneaked it out and we got to see it. She’s older than me. That was something I always used to watch. I loved the scenes with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson; when I was older I could understand a little more. It was funny, me and my sister would have this little running thing where we’d know the lines to Ezekiel 25:17. My sister actually bought me a wallet that had “Bad Mother F**ker” written on it. But yeah, Tarantino. That was where my appreciation of directors began. It was beyond the actors at that point. Everything he’s touched I’ve loved. I became a huge fan of him and his work."