Katherine Dunn

Prior to penicillin and medical research, death was an everyday occurrence. It was intimate.

The intense campaigns against domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment, and inequity in the schools all too often depend on an image of women as weak and victimized.

I have been a believer in the magic of language since, at a very early age, I discovered that some words got me into trouble and others got me out.

The judge said I was a menace to society because I had put crime on a scientific basis.

Shaft was a pop culture figure along t he lines of, I guess, Dirty Harry - except that he wasn't as much of a racist. So yeah, I was always a fan.

Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.