The apartment was entirely, was only, for her: a wall of books, both read and unread, all of them dear to her not only in themselves, their tender spines, but in the moments or periods they evoked… Her self, then, was represented in her books; her times in her records; and the rest of the room she thought of as a pure, blank slate.
Claire MessudTo my mind, Guernica is the most important online intellectual and literary journal in America today.
Claire MessudI wanted to write a voice that for me, as a reader, had been missing from the chorus: the voice of an angry woman.
Claire MessudAs my wise friend Didi has more than once observed about life's passages, every departure entails an arrival elsewhere, every arrival implies a departure from afar.
Claire Messud