"The novel is a way of knowing, not a way of telling."

"I never asked to be a spokesperson. I just write books."

"My work is to make sure that the people I'm writing about are human, and that they are complex, and that they are not stereotypes."

"There is no place you can go and get away from yourself."

"If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else."