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

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.

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.

I thought it was something peculiar to me. I thought I was abnormal.

If we are to feel the positive feelings of love, happiness, trust, and gratitude, we periodically also have to feel anger, sadness, fear, and sorrow.

I push him from my mind. This is no act of easy omission on my part

I'm a medical doctor by training. I'm a physician, not a politician. And I'm in this as a mother on fire.

That happy state of mind, so rarely possessed, in which we can say, "I have enough," is the highest attainment of philosophy.

A community is an alibi for the failure of individual love.

The Bible is a wonderful book; you can prove anything you want with it.

Is it possible to be nostalgic about old fears?

I don't walk around with a cowboy hat. I did get a tattoo that says 'cowboy' that's a bit of an over-compensation, probably.

I'll start with small things.

Truth shines brightest thro' the plainest dress.