The past is always changing. It is not fixed. The past is not stable.

过去总是在变化。它不是固定的。过去并不稳定。

I like the idea that every life has its own rhythm, that people are not simply points moving through time.

我喜欢这样的想法：每个生命都有自己的节奏，人们不仅仅是时间中移动的点。

A novelist is a person who lives in other people's skins.

小说家是一个生活在别人皮肤里的人。

The act of writing is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt it didn't matter.

写作的行为是一种乐观的行为。如果你觉得它不重要，你就不会费心去做。

There is no history except as it is composed.

历史只有在被书写时才存在。

Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.

计划写作不是写作。列提纲、做研究、和别人谈论你在做什么，这些都不是写作。写作就是写作。

The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.

历史学家会告诉你发生了什么。小说家会告诉你那是什么感觉。

History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.

历史就是现在。这就是为什么每一代人都要重新书写它。但大多数人认为的历史是其最终产物——神话。

The writer isn't made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century.

作家不是在真空中造就的。作家是见证者。我们需要作家的原因是因为我们需要见证这个可怕的世纪。

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.

写作是一种社会认可的精神分裂症形式。