Elif Batuman

For much of my adult life, I believed, inaccurately, that I knew the story of Charles Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol' - that I remembered it from childhood.

My family is very feminist, and they consider that Islam is not a super feminist religion, which I know people can argue about. But that's - anyway that's how I was brought up, so it would be odd for me to suddenly just up and start wearing a headscarf.

My family is not only not religious, but my parents are both - they're secularists. My father is actually an atheist and feels very strongly about it.

It's possible to watch 'Gone Girl' and feel that you have seen something terribly bleak. But it's also possible to receive it as good news. Any powerful articulation of the need for change is also a testimony to the possibility of change.

There's a lot to be said for an American-style liberal-arts education, which prevents young people from professionalizing right away.

From an early age, my favorite thing to read was novels. For years, when I was writing only nonfiction, still I was reading almost exclusively novels. It's weird to be producing something that you don't consume. It feels really alienating.

By the time I got to college, the Cold War was basically over.

No time you spend writing will be wasted - even if you write something that's bad.

Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time,' especially 'Time Regained,' made me think differently about what the novel is and can do. Then I forgot about it, then reread it and remembered again.

The first time I held an African drum in my hands was at Koc University in a forest in the northern suburbs of Istanbul.

Listing and counting have a spooky, magical power, and the holiday season is a spooky, magical time.

If, for a moment, it seemed that September 11th could be identified with Iraq, the illusion was short-lived.