"When I write essays now...

...as an American, I feel that my responsibility is to say, 'I live in a house in which a crime is being committed and further crimes are being planned.' I don't for one moment imagine that I can stop these further crimes from happening by saying it. But I do so partly to preserve my own sanity, to preserve the sanity of others who are noticing what is going on here and in the world."

Francine Prose in a recording of a panel titled "Literature and Power," from the PEN American Center's "PEN World Voices" Conference