Kim Edwards

“Though Lexington is not a small town, it sometimes feels like one, with circles of acquaintance overlapping once, then again; the person you meet by chance at the library or the pool may turn out to be the best friend of your down-the-street neighbor. Maybe that's why people are so friendly here, so willing to be unhurried.”

“We all have secrets. We've all kept secrets. We've had secrets kept from us, and we know how that feels.”

“As a writer and as a reader, I really believe in the power of narrative to allow us ways to experience life beyond our own, ways to reflect on things that have happened to us and a chance to engage with the world in ways that transcend time and gender and all sorts of things.”

“The secret at the heart of 'The Memory Keeper's Daughter' is something everybody, except for some of the characters, knows in Chapter 1. Some of the narrative tension comes from that distance between what the readers know and what the characters know.”

“Once, this whole world had been hidden beneath a shallow sea.”

“All that sunny afternoon, traveling north and east, Caroline believed absolutely in the future. And why not? For if the worst had already happened to them in the eyes of the world, then surely, surely, it was the worst that they left behind them now.”

“I always talk to my students about the need to write for the joy of writing. I try to sort of disaggregate the acclaim from the act of writing.”

“She had died at age twelve, and by now she was nothing but the memory of love-- nothing, now, but bones.”

“It's impossible to control the reception of your work - the only thing you can control is the experience of writing itself, and the work you create.”

“After 'Memory Keeper's Daughter,' it took me a few months to shut out the world. I really had to turn off the Internet and sort of cloister myself away from the world again and sink into that psychic space to write again.”

“I like to think I've grown as a writer and taken some risks, but I still consider myself to be a literary writer.”

“I love 'Memory Keeper's Daughter,' but in some ways I think 'The Lake of Dreams' is a stronger book. I was able to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's all you can ever do as a writer. From there on you have no control over it.”

“'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Eugenides left me both moved and, at times, laughing out loud in delight.”

“Though my stories aren't autobiographical, I do sometimes use things from my life.”

“In writing, I want to be remembered for telling good stories in beautiful and powerful language, using the poetry of words to reflect the thematic concerns of compelling stories.”

“It seemed there was no end at all to the lies a person could tell, once she got started.”

“I swam across Skaneateles Lake, about a mile, when I was 11 years old. I remember feeling when I was in the middle of the lake that I would be there forever, and having no idea where on shore I'd end up. I made it, and I'm proud of the determination and persistence that took.”

“'The Lake of Dreams' grew gradually, over many years, elements and ideas accruing until they gained enough critical mass to become a novel.”

“After all these years, I feel so free. Who knows where I might fly?”

“I like clothes that are elegant and comfortable.”