Quote of the Day (Barbara Kingsolver, on the Difference Between a Regional and Universal Novel)

“If a novel takes place between eight square blocks of Manhattan, it's universal. And if it happens in Kentucky, it's regional."—Kentucky native and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, poet, and essayist Barbara Kingsolver (The Poisonwood Bible), quoted by Madison Darbyshire, “Lunch With the FT: Barbara Kingsolver; ‘Everyone Has Friends Impacted by the Opioid Crisis,’” The Financial Times, Jan. 7-8, 2023

The image accompanying this post is of Barbara Kingsolver speaking at BookExpo 2018 during the Adult Author Breakfast. Also on the panel (not pictured) are Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Jill Lepore, Nicholas Sparks, and Trevor Noah. The photo was taken May 30, 2018, by Terry Ballard.

Quote of the Day (Barbara Kingsolver, on Living Inside a Hope)

“The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. What I want is almost so simple I can't say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to go around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyers nor the destroyed.” — American novelist, essayist and poet Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams (1990)

Quote of the Day (Barbara Kingsolver, on a Motive for Learning to Read)

“You learn to read so you can identify the reality in which you live, so that you can become a protagonist of history rather than a spectator.” — American novelist, essayist and poet Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams (1990) 

Quote of the Day (Barbara Kingsolver, on the Influence of a Writer)

“A pen may or may not be mightier than the sword, but it is brassier than the telephone. When the writer converses privately with her soul in the long dark night, a thousand neighbors are listening in on the party line, taking it personally.”— American novelist, essayist and poet Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never (1995)

(This photo of Barbara Kingsolver was taken by Steven L. Hopp.)

Quote of the Day (Barbara Kingsolver, on Tyrants and the Old Order)

“When men fear the loss of what they know, they will follow any tyrant who promises to restore the old order.” — American novelist, essayist and poet Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered (2018)

(This photo of Barbara Kingsolver was taken by Steven L. Hopp.)