It's like my whole world is coming undone, but when I write, my pencil is a needle and thread, and I'm stitching the scraps back together.

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.

A book does not discriminate against any reader. All are welcome at the table of literature.

A novel is not, after all, a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heart.

I think it is important to know how to teach new material to help young people grow and learn.

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

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