It seemed that everywhere you went, people quickly adapted to the way they had to live, and called it Life.

You had only one chance for a signature in life, but most people left no impression.

In The Interestings I wanted to write about what happens to talent over time. In some people talent blooms, in others it falls away.

Being an adult child was an awkward, inevitable position. You went about your business in the world: tooling around, giving orders, being taken seriously, but there were still these two people lurking somewhere who in a split second could reduce you to nothing. In their presence, you were a big-headed baby again, crawling instead of walking.

Being a teacher at a restaurant in the town where you lived was a little like being a TV star.

I have never been much of a researcher

To be anorexic...she thought, amounted to wanting to shed yourself of some of the imperfect mosaic of pieces that made you who you were. She could understand that now for, maybe underneath that desquamated self you would locate a new version.