Katrina was one of those things that rips the clothes off of the guy who keeps saying he's a saint, and underneath you see that he's a monster.

You eventually erase her contact info from your phone but not the pictures you took of her in bed while she was naked and asleep, never those.

The world should always be concerned whenever a vast human rights violation occurs anywhere on the planet.

It was like being at the bottom of an ocean, she said. There was no light and a whole ocean crushing down on you. But most people had gotten so used to it they thought it normal, they forgot even that there was a world above.

There's little question that short stories, like poetry, don't get the respect they deserve in the culture - but what can you do? Like Canute, one cannot fight the sea, you have to go with your love, and hope one day, things change.

Then you look at her and smile a smile your dissembling face will remember until the day you die. Baby, you say, baby, this is part of my novel. This is how you lose her.

I never wanted to be away from the family. Intuitively, I knew how easily distances could harden and become permanent.