[Flying kite with my friends] is one of the seminal memories of growing up for me.

Her impulse, her need, to be the corrector of injustices, warden of the downtrodden flock. And

In the end, the world always wins. That's just the way of things.

Mariam lay on the couch, hands tucked between her knees, watched the whirlpool of snow twisting and spinning outside the window. She remembered Nana saying once that each snowflake was a sigh heaved by an aggrieved woman somewhere in the world. That all the sighs drifted up the sky, gathered into clouds, then broke into tiny pieces that fell silently on the people below. As a reminder of how people like us suffer, she'd said. How quietly we endure all that falls upon us.

A stubborn ass needs a stubborn driver

All stories I write are compulsive. Anything I’ve ever written was because I don’t have a choice. I write stories because I can’t wait to tell it, I can’t wait to see how it ends.

I'm a pretty uncomplicated person. I live a very simple life with my family and I enjoy very ordinary things.