Yes, writing is essential to me. It's my way of living in the world. — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
The people who don't read - who are they? How do they make sense of things? — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
In midlife, I feel that my tendency to acquire books is rather like someone smoking two packs a day: it's a terrible… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
When I finish a book, I always fear that I'll never write again. It takes a lot of time. You always think… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I digress a lot - it's how I experience the world. I would like to write in a way that will convey… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
If I had to summarize, most broadly, my concerns as a writer, I'd say the question 'How then must we live?' is… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
Henry James and Edith Wharton are huge for me because they gave me a way to understand America while still respecting the… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
Especially since having children, a lot of the time if you ask me, 'Have you read that book?' the answer would be… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
At the end of the day, what would be a Canadian sensibility? Is it Michael Ondaatje? Alice Munro? Is Margaret Atwood more… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I love my books, and with all their dog-ears and under-linings they are irreplaceable, but I sometimes wish they'd just vanish. — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I was in my senior year of high school when I read 'Notes From Underground' by Dostoyevsky, and it was an exhilarating… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
The apartment was entirely, was only, for her: a wall of books, both read and unread, all of them dear to her… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
Obstruction can be caused by so many factors - perfectionism, distraction, faltering confidence, external demands and pressures. At some point, of course,… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
When I am teaching, I first give out Tolstoy's 'Childhood,' his first published book. It is so transparent. It gives you exactly… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
If you're rich, you can leave a library, a building, or a hospital wing. But writing leaves behind a visceral sense of… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“The apartment was entirely, was only, for her; a wall of books, both read and unread, all of them dear to her… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“The apartment was entirely, was only, for her: a wall of books, both read and unread, all of them dear to her… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I believe that, in an ideal world, writers would feel free to write what matters to them without having to consider success,… — 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
