There are multiple things entering in your mind.

You get closer to your own humanity by understanding the stories of other people and the struggles they have.

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.

I liked museums but I wanted to be a dancer, I wanted to go into performing arts, or be a writer.

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.

I started to paint in the year 2000. I never thought of going to an art school, even though I loved art.

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.