Maggie Shipstead takes hold of the reader and doesn't let go. Astonish Me is a haunting, powerful novel.

I often envy my friends who are visual artists. Visual artists have other things to work with. Other media. I envy my sculptor friends: they have hunks of matter. Marble. Wood. It's physical, which I find very appealing. What we have is nothing, is just glaringly blank.

Everything I know about life I learned from the daily practice of sitting down to write.

There is no end to the promotion. There is no end to the possibilities. You can continue to promote a book for years, literally.

I found myself doing so much public speaking, more and more and bigger and bigger.

The only graceful thing to do is recognize and embrace what is actually happening, rather than fight against it.

I did want to feel like life's all of one piece.