In my life as a wife and mother, I'm always conscious of my desire to be present.

As writers, it is our job not only to imagine, but to witness.

We don't choose what's going to wake us up.

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

Our minds simply don't function in some sort of narrative chronology. I think that one of the great gifts of writing fiction is being able to think about that.

I had spent my childhood and the better part of my early adulthood trying to understand my mother. She had been an extraordinarily difficult person, spiteful and full of rage, with a temper that could flare, seemingly out of nowhere, scorching everything and everyone who got in its way. [pp. 40-41]

When I sit down with my notebook, when I start scribbling words across the page, I find out what I’m feeling.