“I did go through graduate school and I like to do research, to create ...” — Marilynne Robinson Quote

I did go through graduate school and I like to do research, to create something that has a certain objective solidity. The same thing influences my fiction to some degree, because, you know, my fiction is often based on history that I've read.

I listen to Bach a great deal. In general I like to listen to hymns and liturgical music.

I like to read in my own house, in any of the rooms I always mean to paint or otherwise improve and never do. Every detail is so familiar to me that it makes almost no claim on my attention.

I doubt that I could create a character I loathed simply because when a character takes life, it is impossible not to be a little amazed by the phenomenon, and to find that the amazement has something of the quality of delight.

The worst thing we can do is graduate kids who aren't prepared for the real world.

We want every guy to graduate, and we work very hard on that.

It started with my mom; she always wanted me to get my degree and graduate.

I loved it. I just thought I wanted to stay in college forever. I came to New York all by myself; I didn't have any friends there. But it was fine. I felt comfortable. I started thinking, 'Maybe graduate school?' I was really cool with people who were smart, who knew stuff. It's very romantic and stimulating.

In graduate school, I was a student of E.L. Doctorow, and he had us read 'Moby-Dick' in a week.