My middle school years were defined by memorizing every single word off 'License to Ill' and 'Paul's Boutique.'
I eventually realised you don't have to understand every single word, and that reading in your head doesn't have to be perfect. Once I took that pressure off, it gave me confidence.
You're not going to find a more committed performer than Sandra Oh - to every single word, action, history that informs the future. Every little thing.
Words have a genealogy and it's easier to trace the evolution of a single word than the evolution of a language.
As soon as I walk down that sticky six-mile patterned carpet that welcomes you at Heathrow, I buy the Sunday papers and read the fashion supplements cover to cover. Even though hardly a single word in them seems directed at any male who ever lived, I find them compulsive reading.
While I was writing 'Elizabeth Is Missing' and struggling with the intricacies of the plot, I told myself the next book would be really simple and linear, and I'd have it all worked out before I set down a single word.