That you can go anywhere in America and get a book from a library is just the most amazing thing in the world. It's not a duty; it's a privilege and it's a joy. That joy is doubled and tripled and quadrupled if you read with other people.

Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark.

I always go to the Agriculture Building, where they make apple cider popsicles for a dollar.

A typical day for me is I get up at 6:00, the coffeemaker goes on automatically and the computer gets turned on. I pour a cup of coffee, listen to Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac, and then I write.

The way we started was, Alison [McGhee] said, 'Tall girl, short girl.' We had no plans beyond that.

the story is not a pretty one. there is violence in it. And cruelty. But stories that are not pretty have a certain value, too, I suppose. Everything, as you well know (having lived in this world long enough to have figured out a thing or two for yourself), cannont always be sweetness and light.

No one cared what she wanted. No one had ever cared. And perhaps, worst of all, no one ever would care.