No one wants for their child to become a refugee. It's an awful experience.

Every new refugee to a society, whether it's the United States or some other place, is subjected to fear. They are the new outsider population, the new other.

In the United States, the immigrant experience occupies a very central place in American mythology. And sometimes, that place wavers between acceptance and rejection.

Immigrants, as troubling as they are to some people, are an integral part of what the American Dream is supposed to be. They're understandable to a considerable number of Americans.

People might like to think a war is done when a cease fire is signed, but for most people who lived through a war it goes on for decades.

Writers from the majority can assume their audiences know what they're talking about - they don't have to explain things, whereas minority writers are expected to.

My identity is deeply intertwined with being a refugee because that's the first experience that I remember.

I never called myself a writer because it seemed so pretentious - a writer was what somebody else called you, a title bestowed.

I've never stopped being a refugee.

Hollywood in many ways serves as the unofficial ministry of propaganda for the United States.

If you're a so-called minority writer, the temptation is to write for the majority... I refuse to do that.

A simple way to be grateful is to close your eyes for a minute and think of those who never got a chance to open them.

You could achieve nothing with wondered mind! you need to stop it!

When I consider writing I sometimes wonder why doesn't everybody do it, other times I wonder why does anybody do it.

Genius is a steed too fiery for the plow or the cart.

I like to not care that much about criticism, but I do care about it.

Resolved to live with all my might while I do live, and as I shall wish I had done ten thousand years hence.

Clean up your own backyard. Change by example. Just be the way you want others to be and hope they pay attention.

The greatest quality that a person can possess is the quality of self-belief. If you believe you can, you can. If you believe you won't, you most certainly won't.

Liberalism has consequences. It has never worked, folks. It has never worked! It has never fulfilled its promise.

Miserable men commiserate not themselves; bowelless unto others, and merciless unto their own bowels.