I tell people to write the stories that you're afraid to talk about, the stories you wish you'd forget, because those have the most power. Those are the ones that have the most strength when you give them as a testimony.

I'm from Chicago, so the Chicago working-class poets still mean a great deal to me.

To this day, on my cheat days from my diet, which are New Year's Eve and my birthday, I buy luxury foods that are very indicative of my class.

I have to get my will in order. I have to get the Macondo Foundation going. I want to invest the money and resources that I've gotten from working so hard so that it's shared and it has its life beyond me.

That's why it's important to be multilingual, because it teaches you so much about your own language.

I think of reading as like a medicine cabinet.

Even if we don't know if God exists, we can be certain love exists, because its power transcends death.