In America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.

I was punched breathless by the strongest emotions I have ever felt and they are now stored in my intuition as a writer.

External success has to do with people who may see me as a model, or an example, or a representative. As much as I may dislike or want to reject that responsibility, this is something that comes with public success. It's important to give others a sense of hope that it is possible and you can come from really different places in the world and find your own place in the world that's unique for yourself.

My favorite anything is always relative to the context of present time, place and mood. When I finish a book and want to immediately find another by the same author and no other, that author is elevated to my favorite.

I like to go somewhere where I learn something I didn't know before, like the Dry Tortugas between Florida and Cuba.

If I now recognize evil in other people, is it not because I have become evil too?

Wise guy, he not go against wind. In Chinese we say, Come from South, blow with wind -- poom! -- North will follow. Strongest wind cannot be seen.