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" Ah yes, the paradox of publicity is that even as we do it, we know it's killing off the chance of another reader happening across our book in the ideal state of innocence. "
Emma Donoghue
Innocence
Know
Off
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" I got in the habit of giving away a book as soon as I've finished it because I lived in a housing co-op at Cambridge and had no space to keep books. "
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" Writers should be applauded for their ability to make things up. "
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Should
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Make
" I'm a huge planner, more and more so as the years go by. "
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" It's painful to consider anything but writing. "
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" I've always been religiously inclined, but it doesn't come up in most of my books. "
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" I would say I have sort of a natural gift for character, and following one person's point of view at a time, and dialogue, but I'm not naturally good at strong plot. "
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" I think the only difference between me and other people is that when I hear of an interesting historical incident, I immediately write it down and Google it. "
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Down
Interesting
Me
" Identity politics are wearisome; you don't want to go on speaking for any one group as a writer. "
Emma Donoghue
Group
Go
Identity
" Any parent knows how to be the ideal parent. "
Emma Donoghue
Knows
Ideal
Any
" I love it when novels contain a broad cast of characters, including queer ones. "
Emma Donoghue
Queer
Characters
Cast
" I'm not at all snobby about book prizes and how they pollute the world of literature. Just like with the Olympics, a little bit of competition gets people truly engrossed in the business of literature. "
Emma Donoghue
Business
Book
Competition
" Some writers can produce marvelous plots without planning it out, but I can't. In particular I need to know the structure of a novel: what's going to happen in each chapter and each scene. "
Emma Donoghue
Chapter
Need
Planning
" I'm named after Jane Austen's Emma, and I've always been able to relate to her. She's strong, confident but quite tactless. "
Emma Donoghue
Always
Strong
Her
" I am clumsy, a late and nervous driver, and despise all sports except a little gentle dancing or yoga. "
Emma Donoghue
I Am
Sports
Nervous
" Every parent has those moments where they look at their child and think, 'There's a demon in those eyes and no one can see it but me!' "
Emma Donoghue
Parent
Think
Child
" Kids delight in 'magical thinking', whether in the form of the Tooth Fairy or the saints: whether you see these as comforting lies or eternal verities, they are part of how we help kids make sense of the world. "
Emma Donoghue
See
World
Thinking
" I remember a period where my publisher said to me, 'Look, your historical work is selling much better than your contemporary work, so please give us more historicals.' "
Emma Donoghue
Remember
Me
Better
" I tend to be so lost in the work that I don't notice the weather. My partner will come home and say, 'Beautiful day, wasn't it?' and I'll say, 'Was it?' as I won't have noticed the real world at all. "
Emma Donoghue
Home
Say
Weather
" You're meant to have an unhappy childhood to be a writer, but there's a lot to be said for a very happy one that just lets you get on with it. "
Emma Donoghue
Childhood
Unhappy
Said
" I read three books a week. "
Emma Donoghue
Three
Week
Books
" The way to my heart is through Belgian milk chocolate. "
Emma Donoghue
Way
Milk
Heart
" I'm really not one of these procrastinators who cleans the house in order to put off writing, but life gets in the way. "
Emma Donoghue
Off
Order
Writing
" I hate desks; they make me feel like a child doing homework. "
Emma Donoghue
Child
Feel
Doing
" Before I had kids, I thought you should never lie to a kid. But now I've had them, I realize you almost lie to them by definition, because if you're trying to summarize something for your 1-year-old, you put it in very simple terms. You only gradually complicate the explanation as they get older. "
Emma Donoghue
Lie
Now
Simple
" You know the way there are two kinds of actors - the De Niro kind who's always De Niro, and then somebody like Daniel Day-Lewis, who transforms himself eerily? Well, I aim to be the Daniel Day-Lewis kind of writer. I don't have a house style. "
Emma Donoghue
Kind
House
Always
" I think it would be a shame for any writer to let their publishers in any way corral them into a single genre. "
Emma Donoghue
Think
Shame
Genre
" One thing I like about historical fiction is that I'm not constantly focusing on me, or people like me; you're obliged to concentrate on lives that are completely other than your own. "
Emma Donoghue
You
Historical
Like
" I have never been depressed or thrown a plate, which I attribute to the cathartic effects of writing books about people whose lives are more grueling than mine. "
Emma Donoghue
Never
People
Books
" The great thing about a short story is that it doesn't have to trawl through someone's whole life; it can come in glancingly from the side. "
Emma Donoghue
Someone
Life
Great
" You cannot predict literary success; the only way you can possibly aim for it is to do your thing and do it well. "
Emma Donoghue
Success
Well
You