You can write about a country without taking a stand, but you cannot write about a country without noting that there's history, and that there's politics going on. To me, that's the same if you write about America. You don't have to write about politics, but the politics have to be present in the characters.

A real dreamer must have a mutual trust with time.

I think our eyes are trained to look for what we want to see.

Your characters are always your children. And while you are writing, you're keeping them safe. Now they're ready to go into the world and it's sad. I'm happy with the way the novel came out but all the characters' ending really saddened me.

There are people who are willing to work within the system, and people who don't want to work with the system at all.

What a long way it is from one life to another: yet why write if not for that distance; if things can be let go, every before replaced by an after.

If I didn't self-censor, I would be in jail, and then I wouldn't be effective at all.