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All Quotes by author - Jojo Moyes
" A stylish person, for me, is one who draws your eye without necessarily being showy; they wear clothes that are beautifully cut, flatter the wearer, and show that they are not impervious to fashion, but not a slave to it either. "
Me
Fashion
Stylish
" Chick-lit may be staggering on its heels, but women's fiction is alive and kicking. "
Fiction
Women
May
" Don't set pen to paper until you know your main characters inside out. Create files detailing their appearances, likes, dislikes, and personal background. You may not use all the information, but it is a crucial step in planning your story. "
Planning
Pen
Information
" For every book that I write... I develop a history for each person and make sure they are well rounded and flawed. You have to know everything about them from their shoe size, to where they went to school, to what their first pet was, to what they like to eat, to what they want out of life. "
History
School
Pet
" I always imagined a writer was someone who lived in an attic in Paris, but my mum instilled in me a belief that I could do anything - so I ended up writing my first novel while working nights as a news reporter. "
Paris
Writing
News
" I always say that in any roomful of people, I could hive a novel out of any one person's family or life story. "
Story
People
Say
" If chick-lit really is taking a commercial battering, I'd suggest it's because the marketing has been done to death. Covering everything in girlie pink and putting chocolate in the title may once have been a clever Pavlovian device but now makes readers feel a bit sick. "
Sick
Done
Chocolate
" If I don't cry while writing a key emotional scene, my gut feeling is it's failed. "
Emotional
Feeling
Writing
" I find my best writing time is actually 6 A.M., before the detritus of the day - the fish fingers and the school uniform and dogs and bills - have had a chance to clog up my brain. I can usually get 500 words done before 7 A.M. But it is difficult, and the Internet, and social networking, are terrible timesucks. "
Best
Day
Time
" If the characters are compelling, readers will follow anywhere. "
Will
Follow
Compelling
" I have always written. I was one of those kids who would always fill exercise books with girls and telepathic ponies. "
Always
Who
Kids
" I have read books that are so cliched and lazy, my eyes have bled. But I also have read books marketed under the chick-lit umbrella that are so honest, clever and gritty that I've wanted to give up writing and paint walls instead. "
Up
Writing
Lazy
" I love 'To Kill A Mockingbird' - it seems to offer up new layers every time you read it. I also love Kate Atkinson's 'Behind The Scenes At The Museum' - that's the book that started me writing. "
You
Book
Writing
" In 'Me Before You,' the two characters popped into my head fully formed, which is really strange and unusual. Other books, I sit on them for two or three months. I have a whole routine: I buy a nice book; I hand-write all their characteristics. I put them through little tests just to see how they would react to things. "
Book
Three
Routine
" I started writing novels by not thinking about actually writing a whole novel - that felt altogether too daunting. I thought out a rough idea, then wrote chapter by chapter, and then by the time I'd hit 40,000 words, it was a challenge just to see if I could get to the end. "
Time
Words
Thought
" I think there is an awful lot of technology for technology's sake. I have yet to be convinced by my husband that persuading our mobiles to talk to our computers is going to be quicker and more straightforward than scribbling a note in our kitchen diary. "
Computers
Husband
Technology
" I try to read writers who are better than me because it inspires me to be better. "
Who
Because
Better
" I've always been a focused person who knows how to get what I want. "
Always
Been
Focused
" I write in all sorts of places; it's a legacy of my time as a journalist, where I could turn out copy in a hotel corridor. But I have a little office that I rent in my local town, and that's my ideal place. "
Office
Place
Copy
" I wrote three books before I got one published. Most writers do. Have faith, and know that with each work you are getting better. "
Getting Better
Faith
Know
" Love is the driver for all great stories: not just romantic love, but the love of parent for child, for family, for country. "
Love
Romantic
Child
" Marriage is a decades-long experiment, conducted mostly in private; a test of will in the face of unexpected obstacles. "
Marriage
Unexpected
Obstacles
" My characters make incomprehensible decisions until you stand in their shoes. Then it makes more sense. Life is very rarely black and white, and most people are trying to do their best. I try not to judge. "
Shoes
Best
Life
" My go-to winter recipe is beef and butternut squash stew, cooked in the slow oven all day. "
Winter
Beef
Day
" My Writers Guild of America card is one of my proudest possessions. I was given it after being invited to write the script for a film of my last novel, 'Me Before You,' which is being made by MGM. Whenever I look at it, I think, 'I'm a Hollywood writer!' "
America
Hollywood
Look
" My writing life has included the struggle to bring up three children. What I do three or four times a year is take myself off to a hotel room to unblock a problem. "
Struggle
Myself
Hotel
" Novelists seem to fall into two distinct categories - those that plan and those that just see where it takes them. I am very much the former category. "
See
Plan
Just
" Rejection is part of the process, so you can't let it crush you. My first three novels never made it into publication, but my fourth, 'Sheltering Rain,' was translated into 11 languages. "
Rain
Process
You
" The fragrance I always wear is Coco by Chanel. I've worn it for 20 years. It suits me, it's classic, and I like the simplicity of only ever wearing one fragrance. "
Simplicity
Me
Suits
" Try to write at least 500 words a day. You may ditch 499 of them tomorrow, but you will still be moving forward. "
Moving Forward
Tomorrow
Day
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