Barbara Kingsolver

Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life. ”

I think the most interesting parts of human experience might be the sparks that come from that sort of chipping flint of cultures rubbing against each other. ”

I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved. ”

Literature sucks you into another psyche. So the creation of empathy necessarily influences how you'll behave to other people. ”

It takes some courage to write fiction about politically controversial topics. The dread is you'll be labeled a political writer. ”

Readers of fiction read, I think, for a deeper embrace of the world, of reality. And that's brave. I never get over being thankful for that - for the courage of my readers. ”

People's dreams are made out of what they do all day. The same way a dog that runs after rabbits will dream of rabbits. It's what you do that makes your soul, not the other way around. ”

Motherhood is so sentimentalised and romanticised in our culture. It's practically against the law to say there are moments in the day when you hate your children. Everyone actually has those moments. ”

It's a funny thing: people often ask how I discipline myself to write. I can't begin to understand the question. For me, the discipline is turning off the computer and leaving my desk to do something else. ”

Most of my books have been about the complex ways an individual depends on community. ”