My mother used to talk about passages and, once in a while, about ordeals. We all have them; we are all shaped by them. She thought the key was to find the healing in the hurt. — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
I'm half-Armenian. Even though my grandparents did not discuss the genocide, and my father - like many sons and daughters of immigrants - wanted to be as 'American' as possible, I was always aware of it. How could I not… — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
I think the most important lesson isn't necessarily to try and write a different book every time, or to try and brand yourself and… — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
The honest answer is more complex. On some level I was sent. Or inspired. Or called. But my calling, such as it was, wasn't… — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
“A term came to her that they used on occasion at the shelter: the double bind...They used the expression in much the same way… — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
“But history does matter. There are lines connecting the Armenians and the Jews and the Cambodians and the Serbs and the Rwandans. They are… — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
What is most important to me is that my narrator's voice is believable, and that, though it is clearly an absolute fiction, it has… — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
He defined himself almost wholly in the negative: It was not who he was, it was who he was not. — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
“A moment later, all of the men at the party, stupefied by the way the hooker had gone banshee,” — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
“Those who participate in a genocide as well as those who merely look away rarely volunteer much in the way of anecdote or observation.… — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
“The Beatrice that obsessed Dante was a Florentine named Bice di Folco Portinari. Envision this moment (and, in all fairness, I am envisioning it… — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
“Boys look at us like we look at horses: color, height, eyes. tail. They can't help but have preferences.” — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
He recalls what that first German soldier said to his major: No God-not yours or mine-approves of what you're doing. — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
“But she insists the family hadn’t a choice. Not true. We always have choices. Isn’t that what Dante teaches us? I really have become… — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
