I love to cook and I've cooked a lot of Bulgarian food over the years.

For the first time, I had been struck by the excitement of the traveler who looks history in her subtle face.

It was not the brutality of what occurred next that changed my mind and brought home to me the full meaning of fear. It was the brilliance of it.

I wondered why she craved this knowledge and found myself remembering that she was, after all, an anthropologist.

No book that is written for an external purpose is going to be a passionately felt book for the writer or the reader. I don't see the point in doing that.

I was filled with angst in college, that I struggled with the question of my future, the meaning of my life - spoiled sheltered rich girl collides with great books and is devastated by her own banality.

As you know, human history is full of evil deeds, and maybe we ought to think of them with tears, not fascination.