But if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in.

I sat down next to her. Took her hand. This can work, I said. All we have to do is try.

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.

I can't imagine anybody who ends up being an artist who didn't pass through a time of geekiness.

Love is the great test of the human. The human is tested by our ability to withstand love. Love is so difficult, it is so challenging, it demands of us that we wreck it with ourselves. It demands of us an honesty that few of us could sustain.

You were at the age where you could fall in love with a girl over an expression, over a gesture

Privilege does not operate without silence.