A peasant that reads is a prince in waiting.

I like to read either in motion or in water... I am happiest reading in the bathtub.

The idea of being productive, the idea of producing many books is going to lead you toward you becoming a better and better writer.

If you want to be a writer, you have to write every day... You don't go to a well once but daily. You don't skip a child's breakfast or forget to wake up in the morning.

I believe that a writer has to tell what they think is the truth in a human experience. The truth of the human experience cannot escape the political.

That's how powerful you are, girl...You pretty, but pretty alone is not what people see. You the kinda pretty, the kinda beauty, that's like a mirror. Men and women see themselves in you, only now they so beautiful that they can't bear to see you go.

It was mid-November 2008. There were pirates taking ships with impunity in African waters, terrorists punching holes in Indian security, China sinking towards depression because Americans were afraid to buy cheap goods for Christmas, and the richest nation in the history of the world was talking about how to keep a budget.