J. Courtney Sullivan

“The hardest part about writing fiction is finding long stretches of time to do it: for me, this means writing mostly on Saturdays and Sundays. But I am always thinking about my characters, jotting down ideas in stolen moments and hoping I'll be able to make sense of them when the weekend rolls around.”

“A high percentage of each of my books has been written in Des Moines.”

“I've never understood why some people think it's virtuous and essential to finish every book they start.”

“As a little girl, my dollhouse allowed me to imagine a big, perfect, grown-up life in which I'd be effortlessly domestic.”

“In high school, during marathon phone conversations, cheap pizza dinners and long suburban car rides, I began to fall for boys because of who they actually were, or at least who I thought they might become.”

“When you write fiction, you're like a bird making a nest. You remember every little story ever told you. It's funny how things come back to you.”

“I read 'Love in the Time of Cholera' when I was 19, and I still think about the characters.”

“It was amazing that you did not become your grief entirely, and walk about leaking it everywhere.”

“I am intrigued by the way secrets move through a family and how events and perceptions from decades earlier continue to influence the way relatives view each other. Homes shape family histories as well.”

“Women leave their marriages when they can't take any more. Men leave when they find someone new.”

“When I was growing up, for example, everybody on our street was Irish. And all the girls did Irish step dancing. It was pre-Lord of the Dance - it was before anybody knew what gillys were - but we did, and there was such pride among the members of my family and people I grew up with.”

“How could a person have and do all these stupid things--clip coupons and double lock the front door--and then one day just cease to exist?”