Ann Patchett

I was very influenced by The Magic Mountain. It's a book that had a huge impact on me. I loved that as a shape for a novel: put a bunch of people in a beautiful place, give them all tuberculosis, make them all stay in a fur sleeping bag for several years and see what happens. ”

Writing is an amazing place to hide, to go into the rabbit hole, and pull the trap door down over your head. ”

The '70s were a different time as far as parenting was concerned. People left their kids in the car with the windows cracked while they went to the grocery store. ”

Well, I always say that the two things I was most disastrous at in my life, being a teenager and being a wife, were the two things I really wound up cashing in on when I was writing fluffy magazine pieces. ”

Write because you love the art and the discipline, not because you're looking to sell something. ”

You learn every time you write a book, and then you take that new knowledge and experience into the next book. Hopefully, every time, you raise the bar. ”

In my experience, surgeons tend to need boatloads of attention. ”

I think it's brain chemistry. I'm a positive, cheerful person, and I think it is absolutely the luck of the draw. I think the life I have had has come largely from the chemicals in my head. I see my life as good, and I think, a lot of times, if you see your life as good, then that's how it turns out. ”

In my life, I have met astonishingly good people. ”

I have been shown so much kindness in my life, so for me to write books about good, kind people seems completely natural. ”