Refugees, especially in their early years, are still caught up in the experience that made them refugees. And they're much more melancholic. They're much more oriented towards the past and towards the country of origin. That can make the process of becoming a part of the new country much more fraught for them.

I've never stopped being a refugee.

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

In the United States, we want to believe we will never become a country of refugees.

Hollywood in many ways serves as the unofficial ministry of propaganda for the United States.

In the United States, the immigrant experience occupies a very central place in American mythology. And sometimes, that place wavers between acceptance and rejection.

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