I'm not sure if the passage of time affects our core identities so much as reveals them to us.

That American confidence is more alive and well than it should be, to this day. But it's such a problem. There's a blindness to that confidence, a presumption that what's good for me is good for you. No! That's what teenagers think: the world revolves around them. As a nation, we've got to stop thinking that way. We're getting too old for that.

I number my drafts, and by the time a book is done, I'll have 75 or 80 drafts of some sections.

Jennifer Egan Quotes