“I met Angelina Jolie when she was filming Girl, Interrupted (they were filming across the street from the daycare/after-school program I went to). One day, she came over during a break and brought us tons of new toys, games, clothes, and snacks. I will never forget how genuinely kind and warm and lovely she was to all of us.

I was a little bit older than most of the other kids (I was 12), and Angelina took the time to talk to me. She asked what I was interested in, and I said I loved reading classic experimental fiction — she came back the next day before she left town to give me a copy of The Sheltering Sky. She wasn’t super famous at the time, and she was just the sweetest and funniest person — I still have the book.”