I rarely get a moment to myself, but I love the way that my agenda is dictated by the children, not my work.

Sometimes I look back and I am shocked. Everyday of my life I have prepared for success, worked for it, waited for it, and you don't notice how the days pass until nearly a lifetime is finished. Then it hits you--the thing you have been waiting for has already gone by. And it was going in the other direction. It's like I've been waiting on the wrong side of the road for a bus that was already full." p. 265

She touched his hand for the last time. "Oh, Karim, that we have already done. But always there was a problem between us. How can I explain? I wasn't me, and you weren't you. From the very beginning to the very end, we didn't see things. What we did--we made each other up." p. 382

If the culture is so all pervasive that you can’t think outside of it, how are you making genuine choices?

I rarely get a moment to myself, but I love the way that my agenda is dictated by the children, not my work.

I'm very eclectic in my music tastes - anything from Nina Simone to Beethoven to Talvin Singh.

I always try to create conflict and drama in my books; it's the engine of the novel.