You know how women have this clock when they want to have a baby? I had this clock where I wanted to win a national award by thirty, be at a big press by thirty-five. I was always working with these self-driven goals.

One press account said I was an overnight success. I thought that was the longest night I've ever spent.

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

When you have a flourishing of the economy you have a flourishing of the arts.

If you have potato chips, that means, "Who's coming over?"Wealthy people - white people who're wealthy - have a bag of potato chips that's folded over with a clip. "What? There's some left over?" In my house, if there was a bag of potato chips, we'd pour it in a bowl and everybody would just dip in till it was gone.

If you're poor, potato chips are the food of life for you. It's the caviar.

There's no perfect place, there's no wonderful utopia.