Kermit Roosevelt

“It’s about patriotism, it’s about America, it’s about what our duty is to our country and to our ideals. And that’s not a message for an academic audience, that’s a message for everyone who cares about this country.”

“We see our lives as stories—there are heroes (usually us!) and villains (those jerks!), rising and falling action, unexpected twists and reversals of fortune. And if we’re lucky, there’s a big theme that gets developed as the story goes on. Writing fiction is an extension of this.”

“I was creating a mystery plot, but at the same time I was solving a mystery. I was doing what my protagonist was doing, learning about the terrible things the government had done to keep him safe, learning about what makes us Americans and what allegiance to the Constitution really means.”

“The writer doesn’t just come up with the meaning of events: she comes up with the events themselves. Rather than interpreting a world, she is creating it. For her world, the writer is a god.”

“We have a Constitution that’s supposed to set up rules that protect everyone all the time — yet frequently these rules bend in times of crisis.”

“It’s about patriotism, it’s about America, it’s about what our duty is to our country and to our ideals. And that’s not a message for an academic audience, that’s a message for everyone who cares about this country.” — On Allegiance

“Allegiance is very much intended as a cautionary tale. Over and over again, usually—but not always—in wartime, we react out of fear. We overreact; we hurt innocent people. Later we regret it. We say it won’t happen again…but it does.”

“I was creating a mystery plot, but at the same time I was solving a mystery. I was doing what my protagonist was doing, learning about the terrible things the government had done to keep him safe, learning about what makes us Americans and what allegiance to the Constitution really means.”

“Allegiance is set largely in the Supreme Court during World War II. It’s the story of a young man finding his way through some of the conflicts of that era. And I as the author had to find my way through those conflicts too.”