Prajna is insight into the world. And a lot of that insight has to do with karma and the way karma affects our lives.

Most Americans have a sense of what the blues is. But in Hong Kong, they have no sense of the blues.

Only when you leave do you appreciate what binds American people and our cultural experience together.

I was relatively isolated from people of color. My parents are too old to be Baby Boomers; they had me later in life. So we didn't listen to any black music at all in the house, not even Ben E. King.

I was raised with opera and very white-bread folk music like The Kingston Trio. That was about as daring as it got. So when I discovered hip-hop as a teenager, at first it made no sense to me at all.

I never really had novel-writing instruction like people do in MFA programs.

I had a lot of expectations placed on me because I was already having some success with my short stories. That was not a good situation to be in. That by itself took a long time to overcome.