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

The elasticity of imagination and compassion is what writing and reading promote.

Reading is a way to take in the difficult situations and understand them. The whole point of reading a book in class is to have discussion about what these situations are like.

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

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

Don't plan it all. Let life surprise you a little.

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.