“Theologians talk about a prevenient grace that precedes grace itself and allows us to accept it. I think there must also be a prevenient courage that allows us to be brave - that is, to acknowledge that there is more beauty than our eyes can bear, that precious things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is to do great harm. And therefore, this courage allows us, as the old men said, to make ourselves useful. It allows us to be generous, which is another way of saying exactly the same thing.”

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.