Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" 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!' "

Related Quotes:

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I come out of an academic background, and I'm aware that what I'm doing is simultaneously research and fiction. I want to meet both those obligations. "

" I hate desks; they make me feel like a child doing homework. "

" You cannot predict literary success; the only way you can possibly aim for it is to do your thing and do it well. "

" For all that being a parent is normal statistically, it's not normal psychologically. It produces some of the most extreme emotions you'll ever have. "

" 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. "

" Writers should be applauded for their ability to make things up. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Any parent knows how to be the ideal parent. "

" 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. "

" I love it when novels contain a broad cast of characters, including queer ones. "

" 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.' "

" I'm really not one of these procrastinators who cleans the house in order to put off writing, but life gets in the way. "

" I'm a huge planner, more and more so as the years go by. "

" A memoir is always the most authentic telling of a situation, but a novel gets to different places. "

" 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. "

" I've always been religiously inclined, but it doesn't come up in most of my books. "

" The way to my heart is through Belgian milk chocolate. "

" I've been writing full-time since I was 23. "

" 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. "

" It's painful to consider anything but writing. "

" I am clumsy, a late and nervous driver, and despise all sports except a little gentle dancing or yoga. "

" I read three books a week. "

" There's no neutral language about travel. Either travel is described in ways that make it sound kind of shallow or just glossy or silly or a way for rich people to spend their time; or else travel is often described in quite derogatory ways, you know, like immigrants swarming across borders, for instance. "

" I'm finding that success is way more time-consuming than failure ever was. "

" You know, plenty of people headed off to Canada or America on the basis of government information, propaganda campaigns. Often you'd go off with a brochure in hand and you'd turn up and it wouldn't be like that at all. "

" 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. "