For me, the more I understand the story of others, the greater I am able to learn and help other people.

In This Body Mystery, even though it was written in the voice of people with HIV/AIDS, it's about how people come to accept their fate and their sickness. It's about accepting the way your life is.

Art is really about how you capture different things you see around you and bring them into forms and words and shapes and meaning.

For me, the more I understand the story of others, the greater I am able to learn and help other people.

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.

All throughout my work, even in the United States, I have worked with the greater Cambodian community.

Sometimes I fantasize about learning to write in Khmer. Because if I could write in Khmer, my perspective would be very different, because I'm both an outsider and insider and I see the writing in a different way. My description would be different from, say, a local writer.