"I admire all of Dickens's novels, but this story of class, guilt, shame and desire is the one that's affected me most. It often pops up in my own writing, in ways I never expect."

"This was this beginning of the sexy, soft porn comedy novels that formed my early youth. There was just something really silly, slightly dirty and exciting for a young teen to read in this series."

"What Kafka gave Marquez —permission to write — Shame did for me. And like all electrifying experiences, at first it was just the shock that such things could be done with novels, that got to me."

"Beautiful and hard-working black people come in all shades. If dark people have less it is not because they are less, a moral eloquently conveyed in these two classic novels, stirring explorations of colorism."

"Say Nothing is written like the most gripping of novels. Patrick Radden Keefe brings the tragedies of The Troubles in Northern Ireland to life in this brilliant piece of investigative writing. Heartbreaking, eloquent, shattering, lingering, illuminating."

"Dawn Powell’s diaries would place me in NYC no matter how remote this desert island is. Images, ideas, perfectly parceled out, brief, heartbreaking observations, a kind of urbane wisdom, even if you don’t like her novels."