“My point in mentioning this is only to say that people who feel any sort of regret where you are concerned will suppose you are angry, and they will see anger in what you do, even if you're just quietly going about a life of your own choosing. They make you doubt yourself, which, depending on cases, can be a severe distraction and a waste of time. This is a thing I wish I had understood much earlier than I did.”

American novelist and essayist

Marilynne Robinson is an American novelist and essayist. She has written across several decades and is widely known for her fiction and nonfiction. Her work has earned major recognition, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, the National Humanities Medal in 2012, and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction in 2016. Robinson taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop from 1991 until her retirement in spring 2016. In 2016, Time included her on its list of the 100 most influential people. Her writing has been recognized for its literary seriousness and for the range of ideas it addresses.