We keep wanting to save those who are forlorn in this world. It’s a male habit.

How does this happen? To fall in love and be disassembled.

He came to this country like a torch on fire and he swallowed air as he walked forward and he gave out light

Politically I also don't believe anymore that we can only have one voice to a story, it's like having one radio station to represent a country. You want the politics of any complicated situation to be complicated in a book of fiction or nonfiction.

I believe in such cartography – to be marked by nature, not just label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. ... All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps.

Everyone has to scratch on walls somewhere or they go crazy

When I read biographies, I skip the first thirty pages about the childhood because it doesn't seem interesting to me.