I think it's important to humanize history; fiction can help us remember. A lot of books I've read in the past have been so much more important than textbooks - there is an emotional connection with one particular person. I'm very much of a research-is-important type of fiction writer, even for contemporary fiction. I wrote about blogs in America and I've never blogged. But I read many, many blogs - usually about feminist things, or about race, or about hair.

Then she wished, more rationally, that she could love him without needing him. Need gave him power without his trying; need was the choicelessness she often felt around him.

You can't write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.

Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.

Greatness depends on where you are coming from.

She rested her head against his and felt, for the first time, what she would often feel with him: a self-affection. He made her like herself.

My characters are usually composites. I wish I could pretend that I make up all of these characters, but no. I steal from people. But people will say to me, "Oh, that's me!" and I'm thinking, no, that's not you!