Memories don't have to be weird or original to be meaningful. In fact, their universality is what makes them resonate with people. That's why I'm sure this book is going to be a success. I think it could be a kids' book that means a lot to parents, too.

I remember flying in my grandfather's plane, with my mother, to go up to Maine and bring in the hay at their farm after she divorced my father. Years later I remembered going up into the clouds and then being held by a bearded man in a field, who laughed when he saw me. I asked her if the man we'd seen on that day was God.

"You were two years old," she said. "How could you remember that?"