Growing up, I loved looking at the photos in my mother's old Betty Crocker cookbook: the chocolate cakes, the cookie house, even the cheese balls and fondues.

My mother is deeply pragmatic by nature. Perhaps you had to be, as an immigrant. You made do.

When my father finished his Ph.D., my mother went back for another bachelor's degree, this time in environmental science.

My mother ended up getting a Ph.D. of her own, in chemistry, and eventually became a tenured professor.

Writing is like shouting into the world. So when someone shouts back, it's a really big deal. To have people who read hundreds and hundreds of books a year say, 'Hey, we thought this was really great,' that's a huge self-esteem boost.

Writers, most of them, don't have a lot of resources.

I did a lot of weird jobs, like most writers do.

There's this sense that whiteness is the default and does not need to be questioned. That you've got a race if you're black, or any kind of Asian, or any kind of Native American, but that you have no race if you are white.

I was freelance proof-reading, freelance editing, creating illustrated slides for doctors' presentations - just so I'd have enough money to take the time to write. That's how I got by.

My husband really treats my writing like it's a job - and he reminds me of that when I have those low moments where I think I should just quit and become a waitress.

Writing, for me, is an extension of thinking - it's my way of processing, and only when I've gotten something down on the page have I thought through it fully.

It's incredibly rewarding to have people come up to me at readings and say, 'I'm not Chinese, but this is the relationship I have with my mother.' Or say, 'Your book made me think a lot about my parents, and I've decided to sign up for counseling.' That is mind-boggling.

With the first novel, I had to tell myself, 'No one is ever going to read it, so you might as well just write it.' With the second, I was pretty sure someone was going to read it.

With the first novel, I was concerned I would be pigeon-holed as an Asian-American writer, and the book would be labeled for Asian-Americans only.

Debut novels are difficult because nobody knows you... they just don't find a huge audience, because that's how the market works.

I loved growing up in Shaker Heights, and I really miss it.

I really wanted to be a poet - until I realized that I really didn't have what it took to be a poet.

I'm very much a people pleaser, and the first book had such a devoted and loving following.

I think one of the reasons that I like fiction versus nonfiction is that I myself can kind of disappear from the story.

What you look for as a reader is somebody who is going to take you and say, 'C'mon. Come into the story. I'm going to show you what there is to see.' The guide who is going to tell you, 'Pay attention over there,' or, 'Do you remember that other thing? Now watch!'

I'm really interested in how we understand each other - and whether we can understand each other.

We have to figure out why we see the world in different ways and then how are we going to adjust so that we can at least still understand each other.

I wanted to write a book about people who have the best intentions and think - really, truly think - that they're doing the right thing. And then they realize that when those ideals come knocking at their windowsill, a lot of times they will suddenly disavow those ideals.

For the first three years of his life, my son insisted on hearing 'Goodnight Moon' before bedtime. Like most babies, he was not a good sleeper by disposition - but reading seemed to help, and this book specifically became part of his whole wind-down ritual.

One of the things I like so much about 'Goodnight Moon' is the way it leaves room for ambiguity.

In my own work, when I start off writing a scene, I don't know which physical details are going to turn out to be meaningful. But, inevitably, certain images will stand out - you start to decide which ones are important as you go.

One of the most fun things for me, as a writer, is when readers ask questions like, 'Oh, I noticed that you have a lot of water and baptism imagery in your book. Did you do that on purpose?'

I have a bad habit of reading more than one book simultaneously!

Taste is idiosyncratic, so I don't love everything people recommend me, and I don't love everything my friends love.

I'm fascinated by the ways people under repressive regimes still manage to share information - and joy.

Rebecca Solnit is a clarion voice of reason.

As soon as I could write, I was writing stories.

In fiction you're not often writing about the typical; you are interested in outliers, the points of interest. Part of it comes from feeling I was the only Asian or person of colour... another part comes from my personality: I'm an introvert, and my usual survival mode in a large group is to stand by a wall and watch everybody.

I have an interest in the outsider.

Words are an imperfect medium for explaining.

Honestly, if anyone reads my work, they're doing me a favor, so they get to use whatever words they want to describe it. I can't control that, nor if they like the work, so best not to even try.

I think I'm good at metaphors and descriptions. Plot doesn't come naturally to me, so I work really hard at it.

Obviously, the genes of women are flawed. They are poorly designed creatures who do not want to have sex nearly as often as needed for the human race to get along peaceably and fruitfully.

Success is about persistence. You can only afford to be persistent in something you deeply enjoy.

You can turn on Fox News almost any day and see some fictional story about voter fraud, the whole purpose of which is to limit voting by the poor, the elderly, college students and minorities.

I made $70,000 in the 1990s, when I was a corporate lawyer. I didn't see that salary again until I was on MSNBC.

The Republicans love alpha-males, and they're sick of the corruption, too. Not that Trump will do anything about it. But at least he's not bought. And he throws in just the right amount of racism to appeal to the Republican base.

Unfortunately, a lot of the mainstream media television is so fake, so plastic, that it's really turned off the younger generation.

Our number one agenda is to get money out of politics, to drain the swamp, but not in the way that Trump said. He stacked his cabinet full of Goldman Sachs guys.

If I get hungry, I get cranky on air.

I think President Obama is clearly, you know, a Republican. I know, because in the 1990s I was a Republican, and he's way to the right of me, and I've hardly changed any positions.

I am not in the camp of 'Russia has to be our enemy, and they have to be that way forever,' and I think sometimes we fight about from the past.

You think that the CNN hosts can aggressively challenge government officials? I don't think so. It doesn't look that way at all. And of course, when you get to Fox News, they're a whole different animal: they're purely propaganda.

The Grand Bargain is a Grand Lie. Anyone who argues for it is either a fool or a charlatan. If President Obama was anything but the establishment hack that he is, he would never consider it.

I'm a huge optimist.