I've never felt powerful enough to write a true political novel, or deeply knowledgeable enough to draw a character like, say, Tolstoy's Prince Kutuzov. — Mona Simpson Copy Share Image
It's a different thing to write a love story now than in the time of Jane Austen, Eliot, or Tolstoy. One of the problems is that once divorce is possible, once break-ups are possible, it can all become a little… — Mona Simpson Copy Share Image
“Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? Does it improve upon the silence?” — Mona Simpson Copy Share Image
I've never had an exclusive relationship to a room where I write. I used to want one. — Mona Simpson Copy Share Image
I grew up as an only child with a single mother. Because we were poor and because I knew my father had emigrated from… — Mona Simpson Copy Share Image
“A mother's happiness; something you recognize and then forget; it didn't seem to matter much, though it spread through our bodies.” — Mona Simpson Copy Share Image
I'm a simple cook, and there's a lot I don't eat. But food is important. It translates so easily into pleasure. — Mona Simpson Copy Share Image
I knew I would hate my best memory because it would prove that people could fake love or that love could end or worst… — Mona Simpson Copy Share Image
Once upon a time, my mother lived in the posh downtown of Homs, Syria. She described my grandfather as a king in a storybook,… — Mona Simpson Copy Share Image
In my 30s, I wrote in the back house of a ramshackle Spanish Revival we rented across from the ocean in the Santa Monica… — Mona Simpson Copy Share Image
I read a lot of books about psychopaths. I read a wonderful book Amy Hempel gave me about the guy who created criminal profiling… — Mona Simpson Copy Share Image
Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later; art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later. — Mona Simpson Copy Share Image
I eventually made the reunion with my father that I'd used as a default daydream throughout my childhood, but by then, we'd both outgrown… — Mona Simpson Copy Share Image
