In my earliest memory, my grandfather is bald as a stone and he takes me to see the tigers.

The best fiction stays with you and changes you.

A lot of writers that I know have told me that the first book you write, you write about your childhood, whether you want to or not. It calls you back.

You never know what's going to happen in your life, and you never know what's going to happen in someone else's life either.

No matter how grave the secret, how imperative absolute silence, someone would always feel the urge to confess, and an unleashed secret is a terrible force.

When I hit a block, regardless of what I am writing, what the subject matter is, or what's going on in the plot, I go back and I read Pablo Neruda's poetry. I don't actually speak Spanish, so I read it translation. But I always go back to Neruda. I don't know why, but it calms me, calms my brain.

When men die, they die in fear", he said. "They take everything they need from you, and as a doctor it is your job to give it, to comfort them, to hold their hand. But children die how they have been living - in hope. They don't know what's happening, so they expect nothing, they don't ask you to hold their hand - but you end up needing them to hold yours. With children, you're on your own. Do you understand?