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

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

I read a lot when I was in school in the United States, and even though writing in English is very difficult for me, I wrote in journals.

Sometimes the mere connection we make with each other can change people's lives. It doesn't have to be something big. The mere fact that you're interested in them makes them happy.

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

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.