I never called myself a writer because it seemed so pretentious - a writer was what somebody else called you, a title bestowed.

My identity is deeply intertwined with being a refugee because that's the first experience that I remember.

No one wants for their child to become a refugee. It's an awful experience.

Every new refugee to a society, whether it's the United States or some other place, is subjected to fear. They are the new outsider population, the new other.

I've never stopped being a refugee.

I think all immigrants and refugees are preoccupied with memories to one degree or another. But again, this question of how much to remember and how much to forget is really aggravated for those who have lost a tremendous amount.

By college, I had a really grand, preposterous vision of myself as becoming a writer, but I don't think I had the discipline or the patience - or the ability or the humility. It took 20 years to acquire those things.