Claire Messud

If people like something you've done - or don't like it - this shouldn't determine what you write or how you write it. Those are two separate things entirely: your work and the world's response to it. ”

I actually did work and produced two short dissertations, one on Faulkner and one on the film criticism of the stream-of-consciousness novelist Dorothy Richardson. ”

Because we moved so much, I was always having to adapt and work out the lay of the land. So I felt envious of those who did not have to try. ”

I'd wish for my work to be remembered rather than myself. ”

At university, my generation were ready to fight, but we didn't really have anything to fight for. ”