"I have a lot of trouble imagining a world filled with people who actually, truly grasp what is happening in their society. And so very few, if any, of my characters really know what is going on, although many of them think they do."

. . . this vision of an African-American man, an Indian woman, a white American woman, and an Israeli man working alongside their white male American colleagues—this isn't a science-fiction TV series, this is real life.

we just have no words for what they are.

Trouble was, on the last day of high school I'd carefully and very publicly told everyone that in ten years' time I was going to be a famous writer, living in New York, married with no kids, skinny as a rake, and far too rich and successful to go to a reunion.