This America has been the country of greed rather than the country of need.

Responsibility without power, the fate of the secretary through the ages.

We live in the age of the refugee, the age of the exile.

I'm the most communal person that exists and a very solitary person. So I think writing is a form of getting to the community and being alone, and it's the best of both possible worlds.

I'm a mongrel in the sense that I'm Spanish, English, Latino, Jewish, north, south - all these things are mixed in me.

Those who have never suffered the iniquities of exile cannot possibly understand the significance, the gravitas, of a mattress.

I think to be in exile is a curse, and you need to turn it into a blessing. Youve been thrown into exile to die, really, to silence you so that your voice cannot come home. And so my whole life has been dedicated to saying, I will not be silenced.