Any given moment - no matter how casual, how ordinary - is poised, full of gaping life. Anne Michaels More Quotes by Anne Michaels More Quotes From Anne Michaels I really believe we read differently when we know even the most banal facts of an author's life. Anne Michaels know life believe facts I have a profound resistance to the idea that a reader could say, 'Oh, well, that's her story.' We should all be interested, no matter where we come from, or who our parents are. It's not my province; it's ours. These questions concern us all. Anne Michaels parents story questions matter I started to write things down, as a very young child, wanting to find a way to remember - to keep close, somehow - moments that made an impression on me. Anne Michaels child me remember way It's a fantastic privilege to spend three or four hundred pages with a reader. You have time to go into certain questions that are painful or difficult or complicated. That's one thing that appeals to me very much about the novel form. Anne Michaels me you complicated time I've said this before - and I mean it strongly - an abstract concept or a moral issue has to be connected to feeling. If we don't believe it somehow viscerally, we don't really take it in. Anne Michaels feeling moral said believe As any parent knows, part of your mind is always engaged - wondering and worrying that everything is okay and calculating all the stuff that has to get done in the course of a day. When the children are asleep in their beds, I can go where I really need to go in my head. Anne Michaels day parent mind children