If I remember correctly, a writer is someone who wants to convey information. Language or writing is a code

Has feminism made us all more conscious? I think it has. Feminist critiques of anthropological masculine bias have been quite important, and they have increased my sensitivity to that kind of issue

We don't know what we think until we see what we say.

My instincts are always against people who want to fasten some sort of hegemony onto things

I don't write drafts. I write from the beginning to the end, and when it's finished, it's done

I've often been accused of making anthropology into literature, but anthropology is also field research. Writing is central to it.

I had a hard time convincing students that they were going to North Africa to understand the North Africans, not to understand themselves.