Back home again....

My apologies for taking so long to get back to this blog, everyone. Between jet-lag, exhaustion, and the small mountain of mail and work I returned home to, I haven't exactly hit the ground running; I've hit the ground at a snail's pace....

The Singapore Writers Festival was splendid, a thoroughly inspiring experience, and I'll post some pictures from it soon. In the meantime, here are a few favorite quotes from various panels and discussions:

"To be sceptical without being cynical is a virtue that only the best writers have."

     - Ravi Velloor (foreign editor at The Straits Times, Singapore)

"I think all good works of literature give you hope rather than despair, no matter how dark."

     - Ma Jian (whose books are banned in his Chinese homeland)

"In my films [Bluebeard and The Sleeping Beauty] evil is cold, cruel and cold, like the Snow Queen's palace, like the sliver of ice in little Kay's eye. Goodness and bravery are warm and passionate. Passion is life." 

     - French filmmaker and author Catherine Breillat

"Paper is the strongest material in the world; paper can handle what I can't."

     - Nadeem Aslam (on the "Culture of Violence" panel)

"As a writer, my homeland is the desk where I work."

     - Nadeem Aslam, on being asked whether he writes from a Pakistani or English identity (on the "Crossing Cultures, Crossing Wires" panel)

Interviewed for a film project at the Festival, I was asked where I consider home to be...and as an American writer now embedded in family life in rural England, the question gave me pause. In childhood, "home" was a transient thing...while today, as a practitioner of mythic arts, "home" is deeply rooted in the land beneath my feet. But the answer I gave came straight from the gut: "Home is where my loved ones are."

The journey was lovely. And it's good to be home.