Whenever I'm with my mother, I feel as though I have to spend the whole time avoiding land mines.

How do I create something out of nothing? And how do I create my own life? I think it is by questioning, and saying to myself that there are no absolute truths.

The life we receive is not always what we choose.

For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could only be me.

With each passing day, I didn't lose hope. I fought to have more.

A girl is like a young tree, she said. You must stand tall and listen to your mother standing next to you. That is the only way to grow strong and straight. But if you bend to listen to other people, you will grow crooked and weak. You will fall to the ground with the first strong wind. And then you will be like a weed, growing wild in any direction, running along the ground until someone pulls you out and throws you away.

I read a book a day when I was a kid. My family was not literary; we did not have any books in the house.