When I was at home, I wasn't shy. I was the clown at home, because I was loved. It was in the outside world that I was judged and I wasn't loved. That was very clear to me, that I wasn't loved. So I became very quiet. You know, those little girls you see in those pictures that look like they want to hunch, I was trying to disappear into my shoulder blades. The quietest person in the classroom, that was me. But that wasn't me at home.

To tell you the truth, I think it's about that we shouldn't get our driver's licenses till real late in life.

Sometimes hearing the stories is going to change people's lives much more than if they read it.

Think about the books that you were reading at a certain crisis in your life, what you were reading, and that's because you needed them to nourish your alma.

My mom was a frustrated woman, like so many unhappy women who didn't get the opportunities they wanted.

When I was writing Caramelo the last couple of years, a sixty-hour work week was normal. And now I'm lucky if I have eight hours.

You have to remember that writing itself is so solitary. You start writing because you're lonely.