“In making up stories, as in reading stories, I could create a containe...” — Claire Messud Quote

“In making up stories, as in reading stories, I could create a contained world in which an experience is shared in its entirety.”

“The effort to create a work of art that is true and potentially lasting, that is the very best work of art you can create at that point in your life - a book that may only reach or move a few people but will seem to those people somehow transformative. That's the ideal; that's always the motivation.”

“There are people who live under the delusion that simply because they will it to be so, it will be so.”

“We have every interest in seeing that the military use of nuclear power will be contained.”

“Horror can be contained within a book, given form and meaning. But in life, horror has no more form than it does meaning. Horror just is.”

“Judgment is contained in the act of trying to understand.”