“Misanthropy is born, I think, out of an almost oppressive sense of loneliness, a conviction that there's no one on earth who understands you. I don't think misanthropes hate people: They hate that people hate them.”

American novelist, editor, and travel writer

Hanya Yanagihara is an American novelist, editor, and travel writer. She grew up in Hawaii and is known for her fiction and editorial work. She is best known for the bestselling novel A Little Life, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Booker Prize. Yanagihara also served as editor-in-chief of T Magazine, and her work has reached readers through both long-form fiction and magazine writing.