I have been in love with words -- their meanings, sounds, spellings, grammatical forms, provenance, usage, how they interact -- for as long as I can remember, which is as long as I've been reading.

I started reading Dickens as a child and I think that's when I fell in love with language.

A lifetime of reading and absorbing beautifully expressed, eloquent and sublimely perfect writing has led to my reading everything -- even the can of cleaner under the sink -- with a metaphorical (or actual) red pen in my hand.