Even if you look in the dictionary you know the meaning of the word or phrase, but there's still the feeling of it.

Even though I'm not privileged in the money world, I'm privileged in other ways: I had greater access to education, I can travel, etc. It's the same with writing: the freedom to move in and out of different places, of different realms of existence, of different life forms.

There are multiple things entering in your mind.

In Cambodian culture the male figure in the family is important; when you lose your husband you lose your economic ability to survive.

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

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.

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.