I first came to London when I was 22 and working as a roadie. Having watched the 'News At Ten' all my life, I thought Big Ben was going to be massive, but I was underwhelmed.
I went to something like six different schools before the age of 12, so I was always the new girl and had to make friends quickly. It was difficult at the start because I was very bookish - I was literally sat in the corner reading books, with no friends.
I moved frequently because my dad was in the army, so I was always new in school. I think if you've ever done that, you know what it means to not matter in a room. I think it's a good experience for everyone to have, to feel like they're not noticed, because it teaches you to be empathetic.
I grew up with this crazy upbringing of living many places and always being the new kid in town, not like a service brat where you're always going to school with other new kids in town. I was constantly arriving in small towns and going to school with kids who'd been together since they were in kindergarten.
Every time you enter into a job it's a whole new universe. There's a new language with a new power structure. If you are in an all Black cast its a different dynamic, the same with an all male cast or a crew that is mainly women.
When you're picking up and moving, it does create... well, I can sleep anywhere, which is really useful, it turns out, on movie sets. But what it really does is teach you how to adapt and change and fit into a new group or school, and that really is a lot like turning up to a new movie project and finding your place.
I'm really in no one city more than two months during the year. I'm constantly having to readapt my eye to new locations.
For me specifically, I think college benefited me. Just getting me out of doing, getting me out of what I was doing before. I was just doing the same thing, you know, every day, same schedule, just practicing, training, things like that.
I've been taught through life experience that, like, I'd better open my mouth and quickly define myself in a new space and with new people because, if I don't, I will be defined.
I grew up moving around. I went to seven different schools, so I know what it's like to be that new girl and have to not only know who you are but also take that into foreign circumstances and know how to respond.
My dad didn't like staying in one place, so we moved around every year - to a new house, new town, new country.
Don't put down too many roots in terms of a domicile. I have lived in four countries and I think my life as a writer and our family's life have been enriched by this. I think a writer has to experience new environments. There is that adage: No man can really succeed if he doesn't move away from where he was born. I believe it is particularly true for the writer.
I had really not been out of the United States much, except for Mexico. I thought, "Jesus Christ, this [Russia] is like a whole new world." Instead of writing Michael Jackson one-glove jokes, all I had to do was go to these weird places and keep my eyes and ears open.
Military families are resilient through countless relocations, leaving friends, networks and transitioning to new schools and new jobs while fitting in to new communities.
I stay somewhere for a couple of years and then think, 'What next?' I find it easier to challenge myself by going to different clubs, environments, and playing with different players.
If a work of art is to explore new environments, it is not to be regarded as a blueprint but rather as a form of action-painting.
I like going to places that are so different than where I'm from.
When I left the U.S. for the first time, I spent my first year abroad in Japan. That culture shock and abundance of new stimuli combined with a lack of guidance forced me to develop my own approaches to learning and juggling.
Being young and extremely naive and coming from a very sheltered place has been a slight disadvantage to me because in Edinburgh, if you meet someone and they're nice, they just become your friend.
When you come from a background like mine, where you're entering worlds that are so different than your own, you have to be afraid.
I kind of like the challenge of jumping into totally different spaces and styles and figuring out how to fit in.
I don't care how much you traveled in college, and I don't care what kind of shape you're in. Travel is the one thing you're absolutely not prepared for as a rookie.
Travelling is a key part of my life. It keeps me inspired, takes me to new places, introduces me to new sounds, and allows me to explore new environments and soundscapes.
If you want to be a new man you have to stay in new places, and do new things, with people who never knew you before. If you go back to the same old ways, what else can you be but the same old person?
I don't like new environments. I don't like being around a lot of new people. It makes me uncomfortable.
