When I travel, I feel more like a nomad than a tourist.

I am not much of a researcher as a novelist; I write mainly from experience.

Time only moves in one direction. Remember that. Things always change.

I think the idea of migration through time is very important because every human being does that and it unites us with people who migrate through geography.

The ruins proclaim the building was beautiful.

My mother has been to Mecca to perform her hajj; my dad hasn't. I come from a very liberal family, so even the people who are outwardly religious tend to subscribe to gender equality, the importance of open-mindedness, all that stuff. My family is generally nonprescriptive.

We can open up our computers and Skype with someone, and we see them. It's like looking through a window. And we can surf the internet through our phones, and it's like our consciousness is far away. Or we can step through a airplane door and be in another continent a few hours away. So technology feels, to me, like the doors sort of already exist, at least emotionally.