Because sometimes you have no control over life and it keeps you far away from who you love.

I have a hard time imagining a country or a government where I would say, "Oh, this is good," where I could live under a government that I respect for a day or a week, even to see what it feels like.

I am a writer, which means I write stories, I write novels, and I would write poetry if I knew how to. I don't want to limit myself.

For people who are displaced, you can reconstruct the story of your life from the objects you have access to, but if you don't have the objects then there are holes in your life. This is why people in Bosnia - if anyone was running back into a burning house it was to salvage photos.

We, as writers, have to figure out a way to create a consciousness in language. It's crazy even to attempt to do that.

I'm a dilettante by temperament. I don't have any expectation.

I am just like everybody else...because there is nobody like me in the whole world.