In Madeleine's face was a stupidity Mitchell had never seen before. It was the stupidity of all normal people. It was the stupidity of the fortunate and the beautiful, of everybody who got what they wanted in life and so remained unremarkable.

She understood that her heart operated on its own instructions, that she had no control over it or, indeed, anything else.

My goal in life is to become an adjective.

The Pulitzer Prize is an idea; it's a vote of confidence. Like literature, it exists purely in the mind.

It was something every child knew how to do, maintain a direct and full connection with the world. Somehow you forgot about it as you grew up, and had to learn it again.

I have a lot of novels that I haven't finished. I usually get 150 pages in and I realize it's not going anywhere. I don't publish everything I write. I must have six unfinished novels at least.

A seven-year-old girl can take only so many walks with her grandfather.