As expected: she, the daughter of the Fall, recipient of its heaviest radiation, loved atomically.

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.

In the months that follow you bend to the work, because it feels like hope, like grace--and because you know in your lying cheater's heart that sometimes a start is all we ever get.

I've been trying to write. I also spent a lot of time on different campuses, in conversation, helping other writers. That's what I do: I teach them writing.

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

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