We become comfortable saying that there's nothing new, and then something like Malarky comes along, which is new and old and different and familiar, but ultimately itself, comfortable in its own skin, wise and smart and crazy-sexy or maybe sexy-crazy-well, you just have to read it to understand. It's a novel that sets its own course, sure and steady, even when it seems like it might be about to go over the edge of the world.

how magnanimous was a gesture if one were constantly aware of its magnanimity?

Anyone can love a perfect place. Loving Baltimore takes some resilience.

My family is really, really Southern - I had two uncle Bubbas, and grandparents that we called Big Mama and Big Daddy.

I'm a morning person, which is a hideous thing to be. No one likes morning people, not even other morning people.

It must be nice to be so strong and to think it's because you're so good, that you live right and eat right, so you deserve your health and happiness. But there is such a thing as luck, and there's more bad luck than good in this world.

There was nothing more dangerous than people convinced of their own good intentions.