If I were really fluent and born into the English language, I would probably become a greater writer.

Sometimes it may be something I hear in the news that affects me.

I've been coming to Cambodia off and on, six months of the year usually.

I thought of the pillowcases as a symbol of love and loss, of retaining the memory of your loved one.

It's really hard when you read literature in a language that's not your own. There are all these cultural references you have to be born into that particular language to get.

Some people have witnessed the killing of their husbands, or they survived other horrific things. My sister is a widow but her husband was killed after the Khmer Rouge. There are different periods in which violence has occurred, and differences in how these women became widowed and how they survived afterwards.

I think every person has a unique story to tell and we each have the different life events that happen to us and sometimes we may feel sympathetic toward a certain aspect of that life event.