There are chapters in every life which are seldom read and certainly not aloud.

- Carol Shields

Words are our life. We are human because we use language. So I think we are less human when we use less language.

- Carol Shields

I don't think I would have been a writer if I hadn't been a mother. I wanted to construct something that contained some of these feelings that I had, some of these discoveries or revelations.

- Carol Shields

I'm concerned about the unknowability of other people.

- Carol Shields