Accept the children the way we accept trees—with gratitude, because they are a blessing—but do not have expectations or desires. You don’t expect trees to change, you love them as they are.

Empowering women means trusting them.

I love fiction because in fiction you go into the thoughts of people, the little people, the people who were defeated, the poor, the women, the children that are never in history books.

Seated by her side in the narrow cabin, pressing cold compresses to her forehead and holding her while she vomited, he felt profoundly happy.

Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too. If she doesn’t show up invited, eventually she just shows up

The world is a very unjust, unfair place and we have to live with that. Historically, there is impunity for most crimes.

far away from my country I would be like those trees they chop down at Christmastime, those poor rootless pines that last a little while and then die.