Inspiration I began working on Now You Love Me with two guiding ideas. One idea was that children probably understand much more than we give them credit for and the other idea was that happiness and sadness, humor and disappointment, coexist side-by-side-by-side-by-side in almost every family. As I began, I knew I wanted to write about a family, its ups and downs over the course of a year. Also, I was thinking about the way in which the vividness of childhood stays with us forever. I guess that's three guiding ideas—maybe four or five. When I was in the process of meeting the main characters (and it does feel like meeting them, when they show up on the page for the first time)—Paige, Shepherd, Claire, Annie and Gus—I happened to see the latest installment of Michael Apted's continuing documentary series 7UP. If you haven't seen these films, check them out. If you have, then you know that Apted has visited a group of people, beginning when they were all seven-year-olds in 1964, and has filmed them talking about their lives and dreams every seven years since then. So at ages seven, fourteen, twenty-one, twenty-eight, thirty-five, forty-two, forty-nine, well, you get the idea—Apted goes back to talk with them about their hopes and dreams, the paths their lives have followed. He cuts the initial interview footage of their seven-year-old selves with scenes and interviews of them as teens, young adults, grown-ups, wherever they are in life. What inspired me was watching the childhood versions of these people contrasted with their adult selves. I was struck by how little anyone had changed. How little, perhaps, do any of us change? In Now You Love Me, I was inspired by the power of childhood, of growing up—how it shapes and informs us. It's brighter, louder, warmer, colder, more intense than much of what is to follow in life. I love listening to people talk, in general, and I love the things kids say—which are often incredibly true and insightful observations about the world. They also ask very good questions. Adults, while sometimes insightful individuals, can be, conversely, immature, flighty, just plain silly. Children can be stubborn, caring, tactful; adults can be lighthearted, childish, fun-loving. The opposite is also very true, too, of course. My point is that age doesn't really necessarily mean much, does it? I came to really care about Shepherd and Paige, Annie and Gus, Claire and everyone else in Now You Love Me. To me, they are people doing their best, doing what moves them. I can't imagine a more complex arrangement than a family, any family. There are endless ways of being. I'm inspired most by everyday life—the wacky, touching, heartbreaking way the world works. And a little humor never hurts. It is, in fact, essential.