Good style happens in one of two ways: the writer either has an inborn talent or is willing to work herself to death to get it.

A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else.

I am worrying about my country. I feel I have a responsibility as a novelist to do something.

I didn't want to be a writer, but I became one. And now I have many readers, in many countries. I think that's a miracle. So I think I have to be humble regarding this ability. I'm proud of it and I enjoy it, and it is strange to say it this way, but I respect it.

Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.

It feels good to think about you when I'm warm in bed. I feel as if you're curled up there beside me, fast asleep. And I think how great it would be if it were true.

Where I went in my travels, it's impossible for me to recall. I remember the sights and sounds and smells clearly enough, but the names of the towns are gone, as well as any sense of the order in which I traveled from place to place.