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" Characters develop as the book progresses, but any that start to bore me end up in the wastepaper basket. In real life, we may have to put up with tedious people, but not in novels. "
Laurie Graham
End
Life
Me
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" Sundown is often the worst time of day for people with dementia. They can become restless and difficult. "
Laurie Graham
Time
Difficult
Dementia
" It was the Victorians who covered the piano legs and drew a heavy curtain over what a lady got up to in her boudoir. "
Laurie Graham
Over
Lady
Legs
" My early novels were very understated and English. Fourteen years ago, I met and married my American husband, and as I learned more about his background and culture, I became interested in using American voices. "
Laurie Graham
Husband
More
Early
" None of us wants to be reminded that dementia is random, relentless, and frighteningly common. "
Laurie Graham
Dementia
Common
Us
" Caring burns a lot of fuel - psychological and physical, too, if any lifting is involved. The energy tank is soon emptied, and the toll caring takes is well documented. It's called carer burn-out. "
Laurie Graham
Energy
Caring
Well
" I've been lucky enough to travel widely. When you're based in Europe, it's very easy to go to Madrid or Budapest for the weekend. I also lived in Italy for ten years and now live in Ireland. "
Laurie Graham
You
Enough
Live
" I have a magpie mind, by which I mean I see and hear little things - photos, fragments of conversation - and store them away for future use. "
Laurie Graham
See
Little Things
Mean
" Personally, my interest in social history ends around 1959, by which time I was an adolescent. I've always attributed this to my particular sensibilities. I like formality and elegance, and I'm fundamentally conservative. "
Laurie Graham
Elegance
Conservative
Time
" I have an idea for a story, and if the idea is going to work, then one of the characters steps forward, and I hear her voice telling the story. This is what has happened with all the books I've written in the first person. "
Laurie Graham
Work
Story
Her
" I have but one rule at my table. You may leave your cabbage, but you'll sit still and behave until I've eaten mine. "
Laurie Graham
Leave
Your
Table
" My go-to author for knowing it all is Evelyn Waugh. 'A Handful of Dust' is as perfect as a book can get. "
Laurie Graham
Get
Book
Perfect
" I'd like to see my grandchildren climb trees, not stand under them. I'd like to see them learn to make bread and brown it over a fire using my toasting fork. "
Laurie Graham
Grandchildren
Climb
Stand
" Not so very long ago, certainly well into the Thirties, a lady companion was a normal feature of life for widows or lone spinsters. "
Laurie Graham
Life
Lady
Well
" Childhood doesn't have to be perfect, and children don't have to be beautiful. From a bit of grit may grow a pearl, and if pearl production doesn't materialise, the outcome will still be preferable to the shallowness of vanity. "
Laurie Graham
Perfect
Beautiful
Childhood
" Once, every woman owned a small mirrored compact, and it was considered normal - sophisticated even - to flip it open to discreetly check for things like nose-glow or lipstick smudge. "
Laurie Graham
Lipstick
Normal
Open
" The terror dementia sufferers must feel is unimaginable, but the techniques they use to hide their difficulties - the ducking and diving and keeping the world laughing - are perfectly understandable. "
Laurie Graham
Hide
World
Feel
" I was fascinated by the culture clash between England and America in the 1950s. My first memories are of being a girl in those post-war years when things were really pretty grim. It wasn't like that in America, which was real boom time. "
Laurie Graham
America
Culture
Girl
" I hate to think I ever make my husband frightened or unhappy, but I suspect I do. "
Laurie Graham
Hate
Unhappy
Think
" Far more than dreading ending up in a care home myself, I dread having to put my husband in one. "
Laurie Graham
Husband
Ending
Care
" The wheels of publishing never slow down. "
Laurie Graham
Wheels
Never
Publishing
" People invade your space and offend your sensibilities because, to be plain, they couldn't care less about you. "
Laurie Graham
Care
You
Your
" I'm married to an American, so I guess that has changed my perspective on the subjects I can write about. "
Laurie Graham
I Can
American
Write
" Being eye candy always was a short-term career, and here's the reason. The world finds young women more attractive than old women because youthfulness signals fertility. "
Laurie Graham
World
Young
Candy
" I think my mother was baffled by me. We were polar opposites. She was shy and retiring. I was over-fond of the limelight. Many times in my life, I was conscious of embarrassing her with my carrying on. "
Laurie Graham
Mother
Me
Life
" Even professional, paid carers aren't always models of saintly behaviour - and they know they can knock off at the end of their shift to go home, take an uninterrupted shower, and have a normal conversation with someone. "
Laurie Graham
Home
End
Professional
" I love working fictional characters into a piece of history. It plays to my strengths, which are characterization and dialogue, and assists me in my admitted weakness, plot. "
Laurie Graham
History
Love
Working
" I've always jealously guarded my feminine mystique. I've been married twice, and neither of my husbands has ever seen me put my face on. "
Laurie Graham
Seen
Twice
Always
" As well as writing novels and doing short-order journalism, I am also the full-time carer of my husband, who has Alzheimer's. Each day feels like a race that must be run. "
Laurie Graham
Writing
Run
I Am
" Sorry, I don't do castles. I hate those winding turret stairs. "
Laurie Graham
Sorry
Castles
Stairs
" I know my parents loved me - they certainly did everything they could for me - but displays of affection were kept on a distinctly low flame. "
Laurie Graham
Loved
Low
Flame