I like old rockabilly style. I always wear denim on denim with suspenders and slicked back hair.

I was never happy, and neither were many of my friends. We were just normal kids that were not so excellent at what society wanted from us at that time.

I still do all my developing and printing in my darkroom. Being in New York, you get tremendous exposure to great arts. In my student years, I saw exhibitions of August Sander and Diane Arbus. I still go back to their pictures. I don't really go for contemporary photo shows.

I was born in Seoul, South Korea; then I moved to New York City at the age of seventeen. In New York, I studied art and photography. I thought I would be a painter; then I saw Walker Evans when I was in college, and that had a great impact on me. Being in the darkroom making B&W prints was such a magical experience.

I think self-reliance and self-responsibility and self-accountability will help you as a parent, a teacher, as a citizen as a friend.

It was a slow understanding that the lack of education in a country like Somalia creates these huge social problems.

I love school, and I love learning, and school really does inspire me for a lot of my writing - just being in public school with people and watching things happen.

We say arts education is good for general education, but that's not the point. The arts are what great nations are remembered for. They are a mirror.