Sometimes I fantasize about learning to write in Khmer. Because if I could write in Khmer, my perspective would be very different, because I'm both an outsider and insider and I see the writing in a different way. My description would be different from, say, a local writer.

Art is really about how you capture different things you see around you and bring them into forms and words and shapes and meaning.

Everything around you can use. It's like your tools and your material. Whether it's in performing arts like dance, or visual arts, or poetry, a lot of those elements can come and help you, can trigger your creativity. But you have to be open, be aware, and you have to be ready to look.

Sometimes the mere connection we make with each other can change people's lives. It doesn't have to be something big. The mere fact that you're interested in them makes them happy.

I'm very connected to the story, the history, and the trauma people experience.

When you make art, those things change shape into something else. It's transformation into a body of different visual elements.

In Cambodian culture the male figure in the family is important; when you lose your husband you lose your economic ability to survive.