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

I used to despair about the condition of the world, to feel a sense of hopelessness; now I find more and more that I need to focus on what I can do, however little it is, to help others.

When I hear Khmer poets, when they recite their poems, I know what they're talking about, I get it right away.

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

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.

When you're reading from a different language that's different from your own, it's not the same as being fluent.

I think that there are certain feelings and things you can convey in a simple form that people can see and understand.