“I was starting to wonder if I was ready to be a writer, not someone who won prizes, got published and was given the time and space to work, but someone who wrote as a course of life. Maybe writing wouldn't have any rewards. Maybe the salvation I would gain through work would only be emotional and intellectual. Wouldn't that be enough, to be a waitress who found an hour or two hidden in every day to write?”

American author

Ann Patchett is an American author. She is known for her novels, including Bel Canto, for which she received the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2002. Her other novels include The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician's Assistant, Run, State of Wonder, Commonwealth, The Dutch House, and Tom Lake. Her work has earned major recognition, and The Dutch House was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.