My life is a pitiful, mechanical thing without a past, like a little wind-up car, ready to run in any direction someone points me.

It's very important to distinguish between innocence and naivete. The innocent do not deserve to be the victims of violence. But only the naive refuse to think about the origins of violence and to pursue the possibility that the genesis of that hatred could be addressed.

There's always a part of your nation's history that you haven't been told that... has a powerful impact on how you yourself may behave and may believe.

You know things are bad when a woman without any legs and who recently lost two of her own kids feels sorry for you.

Write a nonfiction book, and be prepared for the legion of readers who are going to doubt your fact. But write a novel, and get ready for the world to assume every word is true.

This is how moths speak to each other. They tell their love across the fields by scent. There is no mouth, the wrong words are impossible, either a mate is there or he is not, and if so the pair will find each other in the dark.

Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.