“Without it being said, I was treated as a kid with a bright future and Cassie, well, she wasn’t necessarily not going… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“But our friendship was, at the same time, like a city you hadn’t visited in a long time, where you know the… — 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
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
“It occurred to me, not for the first time, that Lili's world was not so different from my dioramas, or even from… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“Don’t plan it, don’t overthink it, just let it happen, you’ve got to find a way to bridge the chasm from here… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
A painting lets us know how somebody literally saw things. A piece of music is another language that transmits a whole wealth… — 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
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
There is that time right around 30 when you think, your twenties have gone by, and now you really are a grown… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“The novel is describing a time in which she felt hope, beauty, elation, joy ,wonder, anticipation-these are things these friends gave to… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“it took me a long time to realize that she, too, was cautious and bourgeois, frightened of the unknown and so uncertain… — 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
“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
There's this moment when kids realize that they have power and that they can use it. — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“But I did wonder what she did, on those afternoons—not just Fridays either, because on the days I had speech team, somebody… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
Does Being Happy simply Create More Time, in the way that Being Sad, as we all know, slows time and thickens it,… — 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
The feeling I had several times in youth, when lying in a field staring up at the night sky, that I might… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“It's hard to grasp all the different things that are going on at one time, or that went on at one time.” — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“He didn't much like reading novels - he preferred history or philosophy - or poetry, although he could read only a little… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“And then, suddenly, there's something else. When you least expect it. Suddenly there's an opportunity, an opening, a person or people you… — 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
Just because something is invisible doesn't mean it isn't there. At any given time, there are a host of invisibles floating among… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
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
I have said it somewhere - our literary lived lives are as important as our literally lived lives. — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
The fictional narratives that television, film, and the news provide for girls and young women are appalling. — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“I don't want to sleep,' my mother said. 'I want -- for God's sake, I want to wake up.” — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
