Don't write the book you think publishers want to commission. Plenty of other writers will be doing the same thing.

The young women in my classes are feisty and clever and believe, often with the passion of youthful optimism, that feminism is a battle already won. I worry for them - and for my daughters, too.

I'm working on a nonfiction book on Nepal and a novel about diasporas.

The richest most meaningful stories are found in small places: made, carried, crafted, told, and retold by apparently unimportant people.

Sometimes I like to play the soundtracks to famous musicals so we can all sing along. South Pacific is one of my favorites. Our neighbors must hate us.

If you can't return a favor, pass it on.

Never give up. And most importantly, be true to yourself. Write from your heart, in your own voice, and about what you believe in.

I can't pick out one single book that had such a profound personal impact.

It took a brave editor in the U.S. to sign a contract for Dancing Girls, and without her belief in the book, I'm not sure it would ever have found its way into print.

Don't call 'em dogs. Dogs are loyal and they run after balls.

I could write an entertaining novel about rejection slips, but I fear it would be overly long.

Every step of progress the world has made has been from scaffold to scaffold and from stake to stake.

A lasting relationship isn't about marriage. It's about compatibility and communication. And you both need to want it to work.

The alleycats manipulate the blocks with gutter magic

I am scared of running out of money.

After a while, the cocaine - I didn't have any friends. I was just alone and I didn't even like myself.

Everything in life depends on how that life accepts its limits.

It's a purpose that brings us all together, working for something larger than ourselves.

The only country that can stop North Korea is China.

I love to be challenged because I'm wrong a lot of the times.

Imagination that compares and contrasts with what is around as well as what is better and worse is the living power and prime agent of all human perception judgement and emotional reaction.