Tomorrow these villagers would carry their secret icons into the church without any priest and light the candles themselves, moving together in single-minded grace. Like the school of the fish, so driven to righteousness they could flout the law, declare the safety of their souls, then go home and destroy the evidence.

That's how it is: some people are content to wait till you ask, while others jump right in with the whole story.

A flower is your cousin...Sometimes a person has got to take a life, like a chicken's or a hog's when you need it...But nobody is so hungry they need to kill a flower. Cherokee great-grandmother

I struggle with confidence, every time. I’m never completely sure I can write another book. Maybe my scope is too grand, my questions too hard, surely readers won’t want to follow me here. A novel is like a cathedral, it knocks you down to size when you enter into it.

The reason most people have kids is because they get pregnant.

I’ve seen how you can’t learn anything when you’re trying to look like the smartest person in the room.

After 'The Poisonwood Bible' was published, several people believed that my parents were missionaries, which could not be further from the truth.