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" 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. "
Emma Donoghue
Meet
Background
Want
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" 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
" A memoir is always the most authentic telling of a situation, but a novel gets to different places. "
Emma Donoghue
Always
Situation
Places
" I love it when novels contain a broad cast of characters, including queer ones. "
Emma Donoghue
Queer
Characters
Cast
" 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 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. "
Emma Donoghue
America
People
Information
" I've always been religiously inclined, but it doesn't come up in most of my books. "
Emma Donoghue
Up
Always
Been
" I've been writing full-time since I was 23. "
Emma Donoghue
Been
Writing
Full-Time
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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 hate desks; they make me feel like a child doing homework. "
Emma Donoghue
Child
Feel
Doing
" 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
" 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. "
Emma Donoghue
Time
Gift
Character
" 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. "
Emma Donoghue
Travel
Time
Rich
" I'm a huge planner, more and more so as the years go by. "
Emma Donoghue
Go
Years
Planner
" I'm finding that success is way more time-consuming than failure ever was. "
Emma Donoghue
Failure
Success
More
" Writers should be applauded for their ability to make things up. "
Emma Donoghue
Should
Up
Make
" 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
" 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. "
Emma Donoghue
Parent
You
Emotions
" I'm constantly saying, 'I read a fascinating article in 'The New Yorker'... ' I say it so often that sometimes I think I have nothing interesting to say myself, I merely regurgitate 'The New Yorker.' "
Emma Donoghue
Interesting
Myself
Say
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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 read three books a week. "
Emma Donoghue
Three
Week
Books
" 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. "
Emma Donoghue
Giving
Book
Space
" Identity politics are wearisome; you don't want to go on speaking for any one group as a writer. "
Emma Donoghue
Group
Go
Identity
" 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