Human behavior in the midst of hardship caught my attention very early on, and my first stories were all pictures, no words.

So many bad things have happened to them that they can't trust the good things. They have to shove them away before someone can get it back.

Hardest thing: creating something out of nothing - the first draft is torturous.

Love grows from the rich foam of forgiveness, mongrels make good dogs, and the evidence of God exists in the roundness of things.

Look, don't just stare at the pages," I used to tell my students. "Become the characters. Live inside the book.

Power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed.

A woman who surrenders her freedom need not surrender her dignity.