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.

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

If in any quest for magic, in any search for sorcery, witchery, legerdemain, first check the human spirit.

If you want an accounting of your worth count your friends.

I hope I look as good as my mother does when I reach the age she says she isn't.

[On Peter III:] He did not have a bad heart; but a weak man usually has not.

You can put people's feet to the fire a bit just by reminding them that we're constantly creating our own history.

When people come to me saying they want to kill themselves, I tell them, "What’s your rush? You can kill yourself any time you like. So calm down. Suicide is a positive act." And they do calm down.

In the hands of an able cook, fish can become an inexhaustible source of perpetual delight.

It is only when your awareness reaches the heart that great progress from your practice is possible.

I don't get depressed. When I feel an attack, I withdraw. I disappear, I replenish, and then I come back.

It's not a master plan to do every remake and every recreation of icons. It's just what I've been hired to do.