People were always hungry, bullied, afraid, paranoid - so I just thought I'd show that in the novel in a kind of suffocating way.

Magical realism as a declaration in the text is usually when someone can't speak and then they must be magically reinvigorated in some way.

I want a theory to come out to guide policy.

I think poetry can lead to policy, and I can hear the laughter when I say that.

Because I write intuitively and image-by-image and moment-by-moment, my writing has to be powered by feelings and emotions.

Eliot said that "genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood." What he meant by that is, the emotional understanding comes before you understand the argument that follows later in the text.

My grandfather is Portuguese. He betrayed what was expected of him and married my grandmother of African descent on my father's side.