I love to read nonfiction and memoir, but I'm mostly interested in the piece of writing more than the person.

I think people feel for a long time that they ought to know how to write a novel in two drafts.

Whoever would write books? It's suffering as well as greatly satisfying. And certainly there's suffering in the sense that you don't know for a long time how to do it.

We still have so many cultures in which people are imprisoned and whipped and killed for writing what they think.

In many cultures, women are sometimes literally kept from learning to read or from going to school.

There's the belief that we can't be smart enough to write. And certainly censorship of women, too.

You have to write fiction that mirrors the actual world, which has people of all sorts in it.

I heard a white writer say, 'Oh, I'd never put black people in my writing, I'm afraid I would offend someone by doing it wrong.' I can't bear that!

There is a lot of censorship about writing that's exerted from all directions, from families or governments and society, even the fear of being offensive in some way.

Little children are all writers.

I love it when people can help me with my work, so I do show it.

Our stories are what we have, ” Our Good Mother says. “Our stories preserve us. we give them to one another. Our stories have value. Do you understand?

a person can also find solitude with others, though it is more difficult

Jacinda, will you listen to me?""Not if your words have anything to do with 'this isn’t right' or 'Jacinda, this can’t happen between us.

Make up is generally there to make you look better, not make you look like you're wearing make up.

It was very necessary I think 'cause you know, when the band's over, or at least in our heads, for a year it makes you really realize how lucky you are to be doing this and why piss in the well?

You can touch everything and be connected to nothing.

I would vote for a Muslim if he or she was the best candidate able to lead the country and defend our political values.

You're quite tall.' Just what a girl wants to be reminded of.

No one came to earth empty; everybody came with a contribution to make to their generation. Most of them never find that gift and even more die never releasing it.

Tell about the South. What's it like there. What do they do there. Why do they live there. Why do they live at all.