“When I started doing press after college, I never got asked about my racial iden…” — Michelle Zauner

I read Lorrie Moore and Marilynne Robinson and Jhumpa Lahiri and Richard Ford, John Updike, Anton Chekhov, Vladimir Nabokov - all of whom I really fell in love with.

I never really wanted to be a journalist, honestly. I always wanted to be a writer, and I thought the only way to apply that interest was with journalism - when you're young and you want to be a writer, it seems like the most practical thing to do with those types of ambitions.

I've been lucky to come up when there's such a huge explosion of women, and especially Asian women, in music.

My relationship to music is such an essential part of who I am, and was a big part of my relationship with my mom.