I thought it was quite wonderful coming to America. I think immigration is a very difficult thing, but America is a very wonderful place.

Writing about what happened to my brother and to my family was awful. It was hard to look back at how much suffering there was and at how certain bad situations were made worse by our decisions.

I had written a book. For various reasons, the publishing industry had decided that my book was going to be 'important.' The novel had taken me 12-and-a-half years to write, and after being with the book for so long, I had no real perspective on the merits or demerits of what I had written. I hoped it was good, but feared that it wasn't.

It's easy when you grow up in fear to act out of fear. I don't want to embrace that fear; I prefer to be kind.