it's like a habit. I have to eat, I have to breathe, I have to write. - Maxine Hong Kingston

If we imagine characters, can we cause them to appear in the real world? What if I could strongly write peace, I can cause an end to war.

I do believe that if we study any one discipline deeply, it will connect us to everything else.

(What do you think about revenge?) MHK: I come from a culture where revenge is important. So many of the stories and operas I grew up on have that theme of revenge. I think has something to do with justice in our lifetime rather than justice in another reincarnation. But in American culture revenge is really questioned. Christianity says no revenge. The vengeance I will permit myself has to come in a new form. I wrote in The Woman Warrior that the Chinese idiom for "revenge" can also mean "reporting to five families." If you can find the words for an injustice and put it in some artistic shape, and let everyone know, then revenge has taken place. It has something to do with broadcasting the reputation of one that you want revenge against. Revenge cannot take the form of an eye for an eye, not like that. (1986)