"Language acquisition is something I’ve thought about a great deal in my life—my parents learning English, my navigating English and Cantonese, and various language extinctions in my life."

"I generally write for about three hours and then panic about the things on my to-do list."

While contemporary attention often centers on urban life, I want to explore and illuminate the hidden narratives and solitary lives in rural settings.

"Right now, I'm still dreaming about that something, something that is neither a novel nor a poem."

"There are two wonderful periods of time for me to write in Iowa: one before 8:00 and one after 17:00, because the sunlight then is so tender and sublime."

"I have the full confidence that anything deeply private is completely universal. So I think what is privately Armenian and privately mine is good literature for everyone to read."

"Our book is about the function of the brain. We argue that we live in a world that is chaotic and often unpredictable, and the book presents our thesis that the brain invents a simplified world to help us navigate this chaos and conduct our daily activities."

His Broadway show Stereophonic became the most-nominated play in Tony Award history

"I mean this book took me more than 10 years -- I started it while I was at Iowa!"

"One morning, I got out of bed and looked out my window and saw a group of children dressed in full tactical gear."