If someone does learn about the world from reading a novel of mine, that makes me very happy. It's probably not what brings me into the novel in the first place - I usually am pulled in by some big question about the world and human nature that I'm not going to resolve in the course of the novel. But I'm very devoted to getting my facts straight.

It occurs to her that there is one thing about people you can never understand well enough: how entirely inside themselves they are.

Culture is a slingshot moved by the force of its past

People ask without wanting to know.

I live in a rural part of Virginia surrounded by farms and farmers.

I considered her my ally, because, like me, she was imperfect.

No other continent has endured such an unspeakably bizarre combination of foreign thievery and foreign goodwill.