Reading, writing, teaching, learning, are all activities aimed at introducing civilizations to each other.

Don't classify me, read me. I'm a writer, not a genre.

Recognize yourself in he and she who are not like you and me.

Writing is a struggle against silence.

The United States has written the white history of the United States. It now needs to write the black, Latino, Indian, Asian and Caribbean history of the United States.

Art gives life to what history killed. Art gives voice to what history denied, silenced, or persecuted. Art brings truth to the lies of history.

I need, therefore I imagine.

One wants to tell a story, like Scheherezade, in order not to die. It's one of the oldest urges in mankind. It's a way of stalling death.

What's happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is one of the grossest violations of human rights under the Geneva Conventions that we have record of. It is simply monstrous.

Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.

You start by writing to live. You end by writing so as not to die.

You are divine being.

I realized my family was funny, because nobody ever wanted to leave our house.

I don't think it's an incredibly radical premise to try and have sympathy for someone who has made a mistake.

Every generation has a macabre notion that wars, government prohibition, natural disasters or mankind itself could be the downfall of society and the world as a whole.

I had no idea how greedy my heart really was.

Evil can kill a person but never conquer a people.

My best sunsets are always going to be in my home town, San Diego. Watching the sunset from the Pacific knowing that you're sleeping in your own bed, there's something special about that.

Writing for me is largely about rewriting.

We never see ourselves as being on a higher level than our fans.

Being Elvis Presley's daughter is a whole lot of pressure. It's been a constant burden in my life.