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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. "
Emma Donoghue
Time
Gift
Character
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" I've always been religiously inclined, but it doesn't come up in most of my books. "
Emma Donoghue
Up
Always
Been
" 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 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
" 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
" 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'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'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'm finding that success is way more time-consuming than failure ever was. "
Emma Donoghue
Failure
Success
More
" 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 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
" A memoir is always the most authentic telling of a situation, but a novel gets to different places. "
Emma Donoghue
Always
Situation
Places
" It's painful to consider anything but writing. "
Emma Donoghue
Writing
Anything
Consider
" 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
" I love it when novels contain a broad cast of characters, including queer ones. "
Emma Donoghue
Queer
Characters
Cast
" 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
" 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. "
Emma Donoghue
Down
Interesting
Me
" 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
" 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
" 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 hate desks; they make me feel like a child doing homework. "
Emma Donoghue
Child
Feel
Doing
" I read three books a week. "
Emma Donoghue
Three
Week
Books
" I've been writing full-time since I was 23. "
Emma Donoghue
Been
Writing
Full-Time
" 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
" Writers should be applauded for their ability to make things up. "
Emma Donoghue
Should
Up
Make
" 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
" 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
" 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
" I'm a huge planner, more and more so as the years go by. "
Emma Donoghue
Go
Years
Planner
" 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