Claire Messud

I wanted to write a voice that for me, as a reader, had been missing from the chorus: the voice of an angry woman.

The more accurately one can illuminate a particular human experience, the better the work of art.

An abiding preoccupation for me is how much of our lives are invisible and unknown by other people, like the Chekhov story 'The Lady With the Little Dog.'

I've never been much of a joiner.

I always had this non-stop drive. I had to keep sending stories out and every once in awhile I'd get something accepted or get the little trickle of positive feedback.

But with each passing year and each new study, the evidence for the genetic contribution to individual and group differences becomes more firmly established than ever.