Member-only story
Traveling Through The Heart
“A novel is not, after all, a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heart.
*
But the sensibility of the writer, whether fiction or poetry, comes from paying attention. I tell my students that writing doesn’t begin when you sit down to write. It’s a way of being in the world, and the essence of it is paying attention.
*
Literature is about being a complex, contradictory human being.
*
Everyone needs a strong sense of self. It is our base of operations for everything that we do in life.
*
When I’m asked what made me into a writer, I point to the watershed experience of coming to this country. Not understanding the language, I had to pay close attention to each word — great training for a writer. I also discovered the welcoming world of the imagination and books. There, I sunk my new roots.
*
I write to find out what I’m thinking. I write to find out who I am. I write to understand things.
*
It’s like my whole world is coming undone, but when I write, my pencil is a needle and thread, and I’m stitching the scraps back together.
*
A book does not discriminate against any reader. All are welcome at the table of literature.
*
Reading and thoughtfulness and openness are the best way, I should think, to begin to address the richness that is in each of us.
*
The elasticity of imagination and compassion is what writing and reading promote.”
