My life has gotten a little more complicated than my ability to describe it. That used to be the definition of madness, now it's just continuous overload.

The traveler feels at home everywhere, because she is never at home anywhere.

In other words, my literary agenda begins by acknowledging that America has transformed me. It does not end until I show how I (and the hundreds of thousands like me) have transformed America.

But, Christ, there's a difference between exotic and foreign, isn't there? Exotic means you know how to use your foreignness, or you make yourself a little foreign in order to appear exotic. Real foreign is a little scary, believe me.

I feel empowered to be a different kind of writer. The longer I stay here, the more light filters into my work. I feel very American. I belong.

Dullness is a kind of luxury.

Ancestral habits of mind can be constricting; they also confer one's individuality.