While we read a novel, we are insane—bonkers. We believe in the existence of people who aren't there, we hear their voices... Sanity returns (in most cases) when the book is closed.

If one believes that words are acts, as I do, then one must hold writers responsible for what their words do.

In the tale, in the telling, we are all one blood. Take the tale in your teeth, then, and bite till the blood runs, hoping it's not poison; and we will all come to the end together, and even to the beginning: living, as we do, in the middle.

There's a great fear of the imagination. It's a dangerous thing. It's out of control, it's subversive.

I have become very critical of the whole book award system and could preach on that subject for quite a while, but I do know what an award can mean to a writer early in her career. It can give an essential validation.

If it were proven that there is no God there would be no religion. ...But also if it were proven that there is a God, there would be no religion.

You must come to terms with your wholeself. the wholeness which exceeds all our virtue and all our vice.