People went to war as a result of it and even today, every Sunday, the Bible in translation is being read to thousands and thousands in Africa. It is an integral part of their functioning and the way they look at the world.

Through the act of translation we break out of linguistic confinement and reach many other communities.

If a novel is written in a certain language with certain characters from a particular community and the story is very good or illuminating, then that work is translated into the language of another community - then they begin to see through their language that the problems described there are the same as the problems they are having. They can identify with characters from another language group.

The Bible affects everybody's life who is a Christian, from the middle class in Europe to the peasant in Africa and Asia. The Bible has affected their lives, but in translation, since they do not read the Bible in the original Greek or Hebrew.

I'm more trying to connect; I'm more listening to people. Whatever I get is very meaningful to me.

We think of politics in terms of power and who has the power. Politics is the end to which that power is put.

I'm writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.