No reporter worth his buttons will let the facts intrude on a good story.

There were two things about Mama. One is she always expected the best out of me. And the other is that then no matter what I did, whatever I came home with, she acted like it was the moon I had just hung up in the sky and plugged in all the stars. Like I was that good.

Anybody can get worked up, if they have the intention. It's peacefulness that is hard to come by on purpose.

Gilbert has established herself as a straight-up storyteller who dares us into adventures of worldly discovery, and this novel stands as a winning next act. “The Signature of All Things” is a bracing homage to the many natures of genius and the inevitable progress of ideas, in a world that reveals its best truths to the uncommonly patient minds.

I'm never going to tell the reader what to believe; I'm going to examine these characters that believe different ways, and examine their motives.

If you're standing in the manure pile, it's somebody's job to mention the stink.

Last time I talked to her she didn't sound like herself. She's depressed. It's awful what happens when people run out of money. They start thinking they're no good.