If there's anything Trollope novels always take seriously, it is money - how it flows from one character to another, how it is managed, who has it, who deserves it, and what it means to a character, male or female.

Because your goal is a complete rough draft of a novel, and every rough draft, by being complete, is perfect.

The thing about Republicans is that they don't care so much about respect, but they love fear, at least in others.

The fundamental condition of childhood is powerlessness.

Men are competent in groups that mimic the playground, incompetent in groups that mimic the family

A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing.

There weren't too many books by women that were taught in school, so I read those on my own, and the books I read were as accessible as the ones we were reading in school.