Curtis Sittenfeld

“For 'Gender Studies,' I wrote that story in May and June of 2016. People have said to me, 'Oh, it's a political allegory,' and I think, 'Sure.' The political stuff is definitely there. But that's why I like fiction; there can be lots of different things going on, and it's all intertwined, and you can't separate out what's in what category.”

“We have to make mistakes, it's how we learn compassion for others.”

“There are always interesting, innovative, dynamic stories being written and being published. They're not always being prominently published, but they're being published.”

“I have this theory that the likeability question comes up so much more with female characters created by female authors than it does with male characters and male authors.”

“The fact is that in this day and age I don't think any novelist can assume that a book will get attention.”

“All things being equal, why not be married to a rich man? (Somewhere, Hannah thinks, there must be a needlepoint pillow asking this very question in a cleverer way.)”

“I should probably be careful admitting this, but sometimes, when my characters are having a disagreement, it's a disagreement I'm having with myself. I can see both sides of the argument.”

“There's an ongoing 'water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink' situation at my house in terms of both pens and paper.”

“Mama!' Rosie tugged on my shirt. 'This broccoli is tasty and wonderful'.”

“A lot of times, in a store, clothes appear strange to me, their cuts or flourishes arbitrary. Why is this look stylish now? How long will it be stylish for? It's slightly embarrassing to admit this - because, as a novelist, I'm supposed to be observant - but I'm flummoxed by the way other women dress.”

“I feel like if you read something, and it makes you so curious about a topic that you then go read something else, that's exciting.”

“It's never that hard for me to imagine what it must feel like to be someone else, whether it's an American teenage girl or a Japanese octogenarian man.”

“Everything 'Atonement' does, it does incredibly well, including depicting characters of varying ages and temperaments and showing the intensity of early romantic love and connection and the very different intensity of haunting regret.”

“Children are nothing but a problem people create and then congratulate themselves on solving.”

“Perhaps this is how you know you're doing the thing you're intended to: No matter how slow or how slight your progress, you never feel that it's a waste of time.”

“There are so many people who are so much better qualified to write about politics than I am.”

“I'm aware more than I was before I had books published that any review is a bit arbitrary - it's not really, say, 'The New York Times' that's authoritatively weighing in on the quality of a book, though it seems this way to the public.”

“I think in general, novels by men tend to be taken more seriously than novels by women.”

“High school is very intense for everyone. But at a boarding school, because you're there 24 hours a day, everything gets magnified.”

“For most of my life - well, maybe half of my life, but basically until I was in my mid-20s - I wrote stories. From the time I was 5 or 6 until I was 25. And I read a lot of stories during that time.”