Q. What is your motto or maxim?

A. Breathe deeply

Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?

A. One-upsmanship. The trouble is that I'm usually unaware when it's started, so at first I think I need to reach for a one-up of my own. I never have one ready and luckily I can then see how ridiculous the whole thing is.

Q. If you could meet any historical character, who would it be and what would you say to him or her?

A. I'd like to meet my grandfather, who my mother described as the Devil incarnate. Shortly after bringing her to America from Holland, he abandoned my grandmother and four small daughters to start a new family with her sister. I'd like to meet him not as a grand daughter but as a peer. I'd like to know what made him tick. There had to be something redeeming in the man for my grandmother to love him until the day she died

Q. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you choose to be?

A. Where I am.

Q. What’s your greatest fear?

A. This has changed so much over the years. I used to be afraid of failure. I was afraid of getting fat. Afraid of saying something stupid. Afraid of being such an introvert. Those things don't worry me at all any longer. It took some time to think of what I fear; I realize I'm afraid of pain. And I'm afraid of harm coming to someone I love. And I suppose those are the same things.