Maureen Corrigan

"As someone from our adoption agency said to us before we left, “You may have been waiting for your daughter for a long time, but she has not been waiting for you."

"The answer to the whodunit of why work was dumped as the novel’s main subject had to do with centuries of theorizing about the function of art intersecting with the dawning of modern capitalism. From …"

"Angels in the house always die in the books they preside over because early ascension into heaven is their reward—and because their goodness makes them boring."

"Jane has learned that there is a fate more terrible than solitude: it’s solitude in the company of a husband who essentially misunderstands you."

"It’s weird to make oneself one’s “field,” but lots of academics these days are doing it—industriously promoting their own race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and/or religion as their intellec…"

"“Mr. Wonderful isn’t just going to knock on the door,” a girlfriend once said, chiding me. “Why not?” I thought. That’s the way people often meet in books—effortlessly, without guile or strategizing."

"Books just don’t register with this crowd. They think I lack common sense; I think they lack a part of their souls."

"The thing that mattered most in this elite new world of mine was brainpower—or, at least, the projection of brainpower. Being a decent, truthful, charitable person—none of those traditional Judeo-Chri…"