Out there is South Dakota," Pitch had said, "Matt said they treated Fern like some kind of animal.

— Karen Joy Fowler

Owls hoot in B flat, cuckoos in D, but the water used sings in the voice of the stream. She builds her nest back of the waterfalls, so the water is a lullaby to the little ones. Must be where they learn it.

— Karen Joy Fowler

So many problems, however infinitely varied they first appear, turn out to be matters of money. I can't tell you how much this offends me.

— Karen Joy Fowler

So many problems, however infinitely varied they first appear, turn out to be matters of money. I can't tell you how much this offends me. The value of money is a scam perpetrated by those who have it over those who don't; it's the Emperor's New Clothes gone global.

— Karen Joy Fowler

Technically a memoir, 'The Woman Warrior' becomes almost magical through its inclusion of folk tales, dreams, and revisions.

— Karen Joy Fowler

The dogs came racing up the stairs. They danced at RIMA's feet, frantic with the need to communicate something to her. Little Timmy's down the well! Feed us ice cream and potato chips! Sometimes there's a benefit to not sharing a language.

— Karen Joy Fowler

The happening and telling are very different things. This doesn’t mean that the story isn’t true, only that I honestly don’t know anymore if I really remember it or only remember how to tell it. Language does this to our memories, simplifies, solidifies, codifies, mummifies. An off-told story is like a photograph in a family album. Eventually it replaces the moment it was meant to capture.

— Karen Joy Fowler

The idea of our own rationality...was convincing to us only because we so wished to be convinced. To any impartial observer, could such a thing exist, the sham was patent. Emotion and instinct were the basis of all our decisions, our actions, everything we valued, the way we saw the world. Reason and rationality were a thin coat of paint on a ragged surface.

— Karen Joy Fowler

The Indians did not like to see anything odd -- a white squirrel, for instance. . . . They thought such oddities were messages, were omens of evil. . . . And the Indians put a great deal of faith in dreams.

— Karen Joy Fowler

There was no point in telling my father. He'd never let me quit after only one day. He couldn't help me, and he'd make some terrible blunder if he tried. Parents are too innocent for the Bosnian landscapes of middle school.

— Karen Joy Fowler