The house was immaculate, as always, not a stray hair anywhere, not a flake of dandruff or a crumpled towel. Even the roses on the dining-room table held their breath. A kind of airless cleanliness that always made me want to sneeze.

I think of reading as like a medicine cabinet.

Each book gets harder, each book gets harder and harder. I always feel like crying when I have to write.

There's all kinds of ways to wean yourself off of sugar - because it is like an addiction.

'Hispanic' is English for a person of Latino origin who wants to be accepted by the white status quo. 'Latino' is the word we have always used for ourselves.

A second person that's come to my life very recently, and I'm thankful for it, is Marshall Rosenberg, the founder of the Nonviolent Communication Organization. He has all these books about how we can use our language nonviolently to help create peace. He's using a lot of Buddhism too, but he's helping me to think about language.

I prefer to go to the little towns now, because in little towns people are kind. I like going to Tepotzlán.