I thought it was quite wonderful coming to America. I think immigration is a very difficult thing, but America is a very wonderful place.

It's easy when you grow up in fear to act out of fear. I don't want to embrace that fear; I prefer to be kind.

For me, a memoir is nonfiction and nonfiction has to be absolutely true.

When someone gets a success, and we, too, have done good work and sometimes even better work than the person who has just triumphed, we wonder: Why did success pass me by?

Dreams are those that don't let you sleep at night.

We are often unaware of how much we love the people around us. This is true for everyone. We may think that we love certain people, but we don't know how profoundly we love them.

I am shamelessly biased about the people in my life, and it makes sense to me that other people are the same.

Why do people always think hurting others is all right, as long as they hurt themselves as well?

Certainly the details of our life are unique. Spending time thinking of how I am different from someone else, however, does not tend to be very productive.

Exposition suggests a great trust in the reader, and this expression of trust makes a book feel tender.

It is hard to create a first-person narrator that can be a child and yet is able to take in enough information for the narrative to be legible to the reader.

It's taken me all this time, all this loss, to realize what really matters is now.

Animals used for food are treated like unfeeling machinery.

It's not that we poor men are so powerful to be able to banish the devil. It's that God gives us the power.

It's paradoxical, that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone.

You ride in a limousine the first time, it's a big thrill but after that it's just a stupid car.

When the entire country was watching one show there was a major discussion happening; is it possible for that to happen in a 1 million channel universe?

I feel a sense of sadness and joy. Mostly sadness though about what I've experienced and sadness about what others have experienced in reference to the stroke.

Sometimes constraints actually create success. Not being able to swim made me run. And running taught me the discipline I needed as a writer.

The opposite of Christianity is not atheism, but idolatry.

A little autobiography and a lot of imagination are best.