I think that if the novels task is to describe where we find ourselves and how we live now, the novelist must take a good, hard look at the most central facts of contemporary life – technology and science. – Richard Powers
This idea that a book can either be about character and feeling, or about politics and idea, is just a false binary. Ideas are an expression of the feelings and the intense emotions we hold about the world. – Richard Powers
What we can do should never by itself determine what we choose to do, yet this is the way technology tends to work. – Richard Powers
The desire to live in our imagination is driven by this suspicion that were disembodied sensibilities cobbled into our bodies. That idea has infused most of human thought since the very beginning. – Richard Powers
Im crazy about Grant: his character, his nature, his science in fighting and everything else. But I dont like the idea that he never accepted the blame for anything, always found someone else to blame for any mistake that was ever made, including blaming Prentiss for Shiloh. – Shelby Foote
Lobsters were tossed up to the men by friendly fishermen. Beer was handed up as well and kept cold in the freshwater tanks in the lighthouse. If the Coast Guard ship Sassafras was sighted heading in with an inspector on board, the brew was hidden in the rocks… – Elinor DeWire, Lighthouses of the Mid-Atlantic Coast