I grew up in a dictatorship, where you couldn't talk about difficult situations - there was this culture of silence. We would run into a problem and have no one to talk to.

Every writer can tell you that a book is only truly alive when it finds passionate readers who bring it alive in their imaginations.

Terrence, the Roman slave who freed himself with his writings, once observed, "I am a human being. Nothing human is alien to me." That could be the motto of literature!

When we read, even if the characters are tragic or sad or disturbing, these are our brothers and sisters in the human family.

Each of us will have to make the choices that allow us to be the largest versions of ourselves.

Reading and thoughtfulness and openness are the best way, I should think, to begin to address the richness that is in each of us.

Marjorie Agosin proves the power of the word to transport us to the center of her humane and human vision.