You can be interested in a Jane Smiley novel whether or not anyone says a word. She enters into her characters' thoughts with great understanding and depth.

Some authors have a very hard time understanding that in order to be faithful to the spirit of the book, it's almost always impossible to remain faithful to the text. You have to make changes.

America has always been a nation of small places, and as we lose them, we're losing part of ourselves.

I've never written nearly as much about place as people seem to think I do. I just write about class.

The Jewish culture has a wonderful thing about education. It has a great thing about family; it has a great thing about unity, hard work, dedication. I would like to say the African-American community should emulate that.

As technology plays a major role inside and outside the classroom, we want to make sure education innovation is accessible.

I wanted to write at school - to write funny stories which the teacher might ask me to read out to the class. It's all basically about showing off.

I flunked my exam for university two times before I was accepted by what was considered my city's worst university, Hangzhou Teachers University. I was studying to be a high school English teacher. In my university, I was elected student chairman and later became chairman of the city's Students Federation.