I would also hope that readers receive a larger understanding, or a different understanding, of what it means to be human, than they might have had b….

Traits don't change, states of mind do..

I actually see myself in all my characters. In order to imagine what it feels like to be another person I have to use my own experiences and response….

In case you haven't noticed, people get hard-hearted against the people they hurt. Because they can't stand it. Literally. To think we did that to so….

The evenings grew longer; kitchen windows stayed open after dinner and peepers could be heard in the marsh. Isabelle, stepping out to sweep her porch….

All these lives," she said. "All the stories we never know." (125).

You have family", Bob said. "You have a wife who hates you. Kids who are furious with you. A brother and sister who make you insane. And a nephew who….

You couldn't make yourself stop feeling a certain way, no matter what the other person did. You had to just wait. Eventually the feeling went away be….

The facts didn't matter. Their stories mattered, and each of their stories belonged to each of them alone..

I do write by hand. I just think - I don't know, it's a physical thing for me. It's a bodily thing. It literally has to earn its way through my hand..

I've always been tremendously interested in criminal law. It goes to a deep interest I have in prisons and the criminal element, and what we do as a ….

Back and forth she went each morning by the river, spring arriving once again; foolish, foolish spring, breaking open its tiny buds, and what she cou….

There were days - she could remember this - when Henry would hold her hand as they walked home, middle-aged people, in their prime. Had they known at….

I do reread, kind of obsessively, partly for the surprise of how the same book reads at a different point in life, and partly to have the sense of re….

The fact of the matter is I always have a really high sense of responsibility to the reader, whether it's a few readers that I get or a lot of reader….

But what could you do? Only keep going. People kept going; they had been doing it for thousands of years. You took the kindness offered, letting it s….

I'm writing for my ideal reader, for somebody who's willing to take the time, who's willing to get lost in a new world, who's willing to do their par….

I would hope that my readers feel a sense of awe at the quality of human endurance, at the endurance of love in the face of a variety of difficulties….

People like to think the younger generation's job is to steer the world to hell. But it's never true, is it? They're hopeful and good - and that's ho….

It's tremendously hard work. Yes, I love arranging the words and having them fall on the ear the right way and you know you're not quite there and yo….

In a way, I'm very interested in writing about Maine, because I think Maine represents its own kind of history. It's the oldest state, and it's the w….