Novels usually evolve out of 'character.' Characters generate stories, and the shape of a novel is entirely imagined but should have an aesthetic coherence.

The novel is the affliction for which only the novel is the cure.

Princeton is quite integrated. Women are professors at Princeton. Women are students at Princeton. That began in the 1970s.

All that matters in life is forging deep ties of love and family and friends. Writing and reading come later.

After my parents passed away - in 2000 and 2003 - I felt I could take the time to think about the past and imagine what it would have been like to be my grandmother.

Literature, art, like civilization itself, are only accidents.

Our house is made of glass... and our lives are made of glass; and there is nothing we can do to protect ourselves.