My interest, perhaps, came out of the trauma of being a young immigrant in this country and constantly feeling my "resident alien" status. I remember trying to learn English on kindergarten playgrounds. I tried hard to be a convincing American… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share Image
Maybe in writing about and through trauma it was therapeutic in a way, but it didn't feel like it at the time. I was in a very dark place, in lots of foreign cities, far from New York. A lot… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share Image
Addiction is a very compelling subject for literature - especially now that it's nearly impossible to come out of adult experience without some addiction… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share Image
In South Pasadena, artists were around but invisible somehow. Even though it was just a fifteen-minute drive from Downtown LA, it felt worlds apart.… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share Image
I both loved and hated South Pasadena. On the one hand, it was so diverse - all my closest friends were immigrants or had… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share Image
There is less gray area there, less doubt. There is a security in being some thing all the way. Our culture, too, encourages this… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share Image
The original Zal story by Ferdowsi gives a very moving account of an infant who had all odds against him - he was left… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share Image
I write very raw, ugly, illiterate first drafts very quickly (novels are always in first draft in under a year) and then I spend years and years fine-tuning, revising, editing, etc. What inspires me? Who knows. I am not inspired that much. That’s why I write long form fiction—I am not much of a short story writer. Ideas come seldom,… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share
It [9/11 tragedy] has affected us on so many levels: economically, morally, spiritually, ethically. It's been all over the place. A new American identity… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share Image
The radical is simply being given more room in the mainstream. And I think young people - I'm talking about the very young millennials - they are bored by so much so fast and have such fast big brains, that they won't digest lazy uninteresting work in the way my generation might have. This is a great opportunity for those… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share
My characters' addictions are what makes them a bit stylized or "grotesque" - not just in appearance but through what drives them. Addiction is… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share Image
I wanted to literalize the surreal here. Those are my favorite kinds of stories. I love when Gabriel García Márquez does that, for instance… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share Image
I love outsider stories. And I also like a lot of genre fiction, too. So I wanted to write a literary book that flirted… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share Image
9/11 was just an enormous event in so many senses of the word - I mean, we are still in the "post-9/11 era" and… — Porochista Khakpour Copy Share Image
![“It [9/11 tragedy] has affected us on so many levels: economically, morally, spiritually, ethically. It's been all over the place. A new American identity emerged - we now live in a very different America. This is the power of the definitive event.” quote by Porochista Khakpour](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/3b7/porochista-khakpour-20047_affected_it-9-11-tragedy-has-affected-us-on-so-ma_821622.jpg)
