When I write I also claim America in a literary way, in an artistic way. When people claim countries, it's usually thought of as conquering them in w… - 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 feel that it's part of my work as an artist, a creator, a human being, is to integrate and to be more inclusive and to define American as large and not as exclusive. (2007)

I travel a lot, and I know that I communicate very well in person, on one to one, but the books say things in a better way than I can get verbally, and also it works so efficiently, with those books getting out all over the world. (1990)