Art is the lesser sister to medicine. It aims to heal.

America's story is largely an immigrant story. That hasn't changed since the Pilgrims ate their first turkey some four hundred years ago, and they were the original boat people.

Today, more people are crossing various borders in order to survive, thrive, change their lives. Even if you don't cross the border, with demographic shifts, the border sometimes crosses you.

I think in a larger sense, immigrant narrative is comprehensive and speaks to the core of human experience.

I am glad to see the wheels are moving at last toward comprehensive immigration reform after last year's election. I am glad that immigrants are speaking up.

In the war on terrorism, the immigrant is often the scapegoat.

That experience of losing home, longing for home, that yearning for meaning and rootedness and identity in a floating world, it's what often makes an immigrant story into an American story .

Precious things lost are transmutable. They refuse oblivion. They simply wait to be rendered into testimonies, into stories and songs.

It's unfortunate that the country of immigrants has turned its back on immigrants. The atmosphere after 9/11 is toxic.

In non-fiction you have to stay true to historical events, be they personal or national .

I am hopeful that the pendulum swings toward seeing immigrants in favorable terms once more.

People are like bottles of wine. The way the bottle looks shouldn’t be important at all. It’s what’s on the inside that really matters.

Beauty fades, dumb is forever.

When you write a movie, you have a hundred collaborators. But when you write a novel, it's yours.

My earliest memory is of feeling different. My parents told me that I wasn't like other children.

I go into every film not just wanting to play the hot girl in the movie. It kills me.

Fathers like to have children good-natured, well-behaved, and comfortable, but how to put them in that desirable condition is out of their philosophy.

I'm not the manager because I'm always right, but I'm always right because I'm the manager.

I didn't choose painting, it chose me.I didn't have a talent,i just had genius

I feel everyone is put here for a reason. Everyone has a calling. I always thought my real calling was to help other people.

Lookin' for love in all the wrong places, no fine girls just ugly faces.