In the end we're all searching for our home, that one place where we belong.

If I cannot offer some relief to our world, if I cannot inspire our generation to join me, then I feel I am a complete waste of space. This constant fear of feeling irrelevant in our society has been the catalyst behind all my efforts and passions for as long as I can remember.

I would like my books to stand as a tool to unbind children from expectations of poetry because it should free the child to self-expression and exploration.

While some mothers sing lullabies to their children, my mother read me poetry. And to this day, I associate my strongest and most insistent feelings with words lyrically organized on a page.

I would much rather sit, dimmed by inattention, and study the atmosphere and the silence and dance between people, but often times I'm not offered this privilege. The necessity for isolation, and the striving for attention is the only contradiction I find in being a writer and an actress.

Although I was quiet as a child, I had this resistless passion inside of me-this need and hunger to create my own world. Poetry filled that void, and its words fed that vital necessity of ownership.

There's a condensed softness about the Albanian people, and I've witnessed examples of their hospitality. Albanian blood runs through my veins and I am proud to call myself Albanian.

My mother's only wish was to start a life in America because America was the cradle of every promise and opportunity.

My children's books are written on the belief that every child has a talent and a passion. Each story unfolds into an adventure of nurturing that confidence until a passion blooms.

I feel it is our inherent duty as a humane society, above any intangible responsibility, to invest in our world's children's potential, passion and confidence.