I started a second novel seven times and I had to throw them away.

If she doesn't speak, she is making a choice. If she doesn't try, she can lose her chance forever. -An-mei

I think books were my salvation, they saved me from being miserable.

In [writing] fiction, every sentence is its own reward.

I have a writer's memory, which makes everything worse than maybe it actually was.

Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever.

I discovered that maybe it was fate all along, that faith was just an illusion that somehow you're in control.