“When you encounter another person, when you have dealings with anyone at all, it is as if a question is being put to you. So you must think, What is the Lord asking of me in this moment, in this situation? ... This is an emissary sent from the Lord, and some benefit is intended for me, first of all the occasion to demonstrate my faithfulness, the chance to show that I do in some small degree participate in the grace that saved me, you are free to act otherwise than as circumstances would seem to dictate.”

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.