Anne Tyler

“Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on...”

“I've always thought a hotel ought to offer optional small animals. I mean a cat to sleep on your bed at night, or a dog of some kind to act pleased when you come in. You ever notice how a ho...”

“In real life I avoid all parties altogether, but on paper I can mingle with the best of them.”

“It seems to me that good novels celebrate the mystery in ordinary life, and summing it all up in psychological terms strips the mystery away.”

“I'm too shy for personal appearances, and I've found out that anytime I talk about my writing, I can't do any writing for many weeks afterward.”

“I was standing in the schoolyard waiting for a child when another mother came up to me. Have you found work yet? she asked. Or are you still just writing?”

“People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have.”

“For my own family, I would always choose the makeshift, surrogate family formed by various characters unrelated by blood.”