I am interested in challenging the mainstream ideas of what is beautiful and what is acceptable.

Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.

You Americans, always peering under people's beds to look for communism.

Race doesn't really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don't have that choice.

My grandfather died in the war, my family went through the war, and it affected my parents in really profound ways. I've always wanted to write about that period - in some ways to digest it for myself, something that defined me but that I didn't go through.

I like the U.S. and feel gratitude towards it.

When I'm in a good mood I like to cook. But I don't like saying it in public because I find myself being resentful of the idea; "Now you will make a good wife. You can cook, right?" So when people ask me I go, "No, I don't like cooking!"