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

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" I think it would be a shame for any writer to let their publishers in any way corral them into a single genre. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

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

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

" Identity politics are wearisome; you don't want to go on speaking for any one group as a writer. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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.' "

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

" 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. "

" 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!' "