And then, into the fantasy, as into a dream, would come the thought: it's not like this anymore; the world has changed.… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
For many of us, we set out thinking there will be time in the future, and then suddenly we find ourselves at… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I think there's no question that there's a reason why small children make great art and why slightly bigger children don't. And… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
When you are the woman upstairs, nobody thinks of you first. Nobody calls you before anyone else, or sends you the first… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
We live in a culture that wants to put a redemptive face on everything, so anger doesn't sit well with any of… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I think that one of the great things about spending - as in my case - twenty-something years with somebody is that… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
We live in a funny time, a funny era, when desire, to be adult desire, has to be conceived as sexual. And… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
If you're writing a thriller, and you don't make it compelling, then you've really not done your job. So it's easier for… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
There questions of wanting to be an artist, and what does that mean, what makes you an artist? Are you an artist… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
The professor husband of a friend of mine has likened children to the insane. I often think of it. He says that… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
There's a reason why trainspotters are not girls, there's a reason why there's the myth of the slightly autistic male genius, there's… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I have said it somewhere - our literary lived lives are as important as our literally lived lives. — Claire Messud Copy Share
“Life is about deciding what matters. It’s about the fantasy that determines the reality. Have you ever asked yourself whether you’d rather fly or… — Claire Messud Copy Share
Life's funny. You have to find a way to keep going, to keep laughing, even after you realize that none of your dreams will… — Claire Messud Copy Share
It's the strangest thing about being human: to know so much, to communicate so much, and yet always to fall so drastically short of… — Claire Messud Copy Share
The fictional narratives that television, film, and the news provide for girls and young women are appalling. — Claire Messud Copy Share
“I don't want to sleep,' my mother said. 'I want -- for God's sake, I want to wake up.” — Claire Messud Copy Share
“It was supposed to say “Great Artist” on my tombstone, but if I died right now it would say “such a good teacher/daughter/friend” instead;… — Claire Messud Copy Share
“Live, my dear Nora. Satisfy your hunger. There's food all around you, you know.' 'What kind of food, I'd like to know?' 'Ah'-he smiled-… — Claire Messud Copy Share
I digress a lot - it's how I experience the world. I would like to write in a way that will convey that to… — Claire Messud Copy Share
We think that - as kids, you know - that kids make up stories and live in a sort of fictional place, but that,… — Claire Messud Copy Share
“It makes sense that if you stand almost daily in the middle of a perfect crescent of shore, with a vista open to eternity,… — Claire Messud Copy Share
“Once aware of my isolation, I was afraid not of it but of its interruption.” — Claire Messud Copy Share
“who I am in my head, very few people really get to see that. Almost none. It’s the most precious gift I can give,… — Claire Messud Copy Share
“My everyday Appleton life, my phones calls to my father, my occasional beers with friends, my Saturday-morning jobs around the reservoir - what was… — Claire Messud Copy Share
