The story was always there and it wouldn’t go away. My memory was never silent.

In America there’s a saying that children should be seen and not heard, … In Cambodia, children should not be seen nor heard because you would not survive.

This is what the war has done to me. Now I want to destroy because of it. There is such hate and rage inside of me now. The Angkar (Khmer Rouge government) has taught me...

Maya put it out there, … She said ‘I am not going to be ashamed of somebody else’s act of violence.’ The soldiers should be ashamed, not me.

They are having a hard time surviving the peace after they survived the war,

I have to find food — either I have to hurt somebody, or I have to steal it from somebody.

I thought the world really hated me. I spent four hours a day being taught that people wanted me dead.

I’ve watched them grow up and study Russian history and American history, … and they didn’t know any Cambodian history. They didn’t understand us. They’re not going to get the story anywhere else and I...

I think how the world is still somehow beautiful even when I feel no joy at being alive within it.

I am six years old and instead of celebrating with birthday cakes, I chew on a piece of charcoal.