The only difference between a published and unpublished writer is a tolerance for imperfection.

This is what I know: people's hopes go on forever.

Run a hand through your hair, like the white boys do, even though the only thing that runs easily through your hair is Africa.

I think a lot of the most interesting immigrant writing involves stepping outside of that old, dreary binary. Chang-rae Lee's Native Speaker is a great example. Same goes for Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior.

For me I was always a smart nerdy kid. I wasn't the smartest and I wasn't the nerdiest, but I was a smart nerdy kid my whole childhood, and I definitely wanted to be somehow involved with reading the rest of my life, and I came from a community, I lived in a community, I was part of a community where reading was considered completely alien.

If you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level any reflection of themselves

Out of nowhere you said, I love you. For whatever it's worth.