Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people. - Broken Vessels, 1991.

Berg writes with humor and a big heart about resilience, loneliness, love, and hope. And the transcendence that redeems.

House of Sand and Fog ... I suffer from migraines and when she curled up in the bathtub... I felt her pain. Also, I've met people from Iran and felt connected to their culture in the author's descriptions.

House of Sand and Fog,

What creates dispair is the imagination, which insists on predicting millions of moments, thousands of days, and so drains you that you cannot live the moment at hand.

What's so exciting and terrifying about the writing process is that it really is an act of exploration and discovery. With all of us, not just writers, there is a sort of knowledge of the other. We have a lot more in common than we realize, and I think writing is really a sustained act of empathy.