“Instead of a dedicated room, my best trigger is the actual habit of re...” — Mona Simpson Quote

“Instead of a dedicated room, my best trigger is the actual habit of reading over the texts from the day before. Marking. Changing. Fussing. This ritual amounts to a habit of trust. Trust that I can make it better. That if I keep trying, I will come closer to something true.”

“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.”

“Writers collect stories of rituals: John Cheever putting on a jacket and tie to go down to the basement, where he kept a desk near the boiler room. Keats buttoning up his clean white shirt to write in, after work.”

“Actual human discourse happens within a number of contexts, not in some sort of unified public forum.”

“During the 1970s, inflation expectations rose markedly because the Federal Reserve allowed actual inflation to ratchet up persistently in response to economic disruptions - a development that made it more difficult to stabilize both inflation and employment.”

“Although Senate Bill 1556 has received attention for its perceived focus, my job is to look at the actual substance of the legislation.”