You think you have a memory; but it has you!

When time passes, it's the people who knew you whom you want to see; they're the ones you can talk to. When enough time passes, what's it matter what they did to you?

I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules.

No touching Baby Jesus.” “But we’re his parents!” proclaimed Mary Beth, who was being generous to include poor Joseph under this appellation. “Mary Beth,” Barb Wiggin said, “if you touch the Baby Jesus, I’m putting you in a cow costume.

I'm a very old-fashioned novelist. I write 19th-century novels, where a lot of rules apply.

He wished he could arrange a maiming as a kind of moral lesson

. . .There are moments when time does stop. We must be alert enough to notice such moments . . .