I just feel that the East and the West are two different worlds. I sometimes get saddened when I see that very few writers of color are published or reviewed in East Coast presses and magazines.

I can't stand it when people say, "If you're writing a novel, you should read this and that." Because it's like giving someone another person's prescription. How do you know that's what they need?

[Dennis Mathis] was very sensitive about keeping the unique way that I spoke English - it had a lot of Mexicanisms or Mexican syntax. So you keep it in because it's adding something unique.

The experience taught me to be present in the real Buddhist sense of paying attention to the moment.

We have all this courage as writers, but then there's this fear.

If you're going to write about the river, you've got to get in.

If we were multilingual, imagine how much you would learn about your own culture, about the sensibilities of what's important in your own culture.