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" Just because someone has stylistic limitations doesn't necessarily make them a worse writer. "
Sophie Hannah
Limitations
Just Because
Just
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" I am a fellow commoner at Lucy Cavendish College. My husband used to be a lecturer at Leeds University, and we lived in Yorkshire for 11 years. When he gave up his job, we realised we could live wherever we liked. "
Sophie Hannah
Job
College
Husband
" I know a lot of crime writers feel very underrated, like they're not taken seriously, and they want to be just thought of as writers rather than ghettoised as crime writers, but I love being thought of firmly as a crime writer. "
Sophie Hannah
Thought
Feel
Know
" When a writer tries to copy another writer, it's doomed to fail. "
Sophie Hannah
Doomed
Fail
Writer
" If you ask people if they enjoy crime novels, they'll say, 'Oh, my guilty pleasure is...' then name a really brilliant crime writer. "
Sophie Hannah
Name
People
You
" With me, even if my life depended on it, I wouldn't be able to cry. Not with somebody there. Because even if I'm talking about bad and upsetting things, if there is somebody else in the room, I am trying to entertain them. If there is somebody there, I am in performance mode. I can only cry if I am on my own. "
Sophie Hannah
Life
I Am
Me
" I'm not cut out to lug babies around! "
Sophie Hannah
Cut
Babies
Out
" I'm snobby about books that aren't crime fiction: if I start reading a literary novel and there's no mystery emerging in the first few pages, I'm like, 'Gah, this obviously isn't a proper book. Why would I want to carry on reading it?' "
Sophie Hannah
Reading
Start
Book
" I want my books to explore motives which make people think, 'Wow! Imagine the psychological state you'd have to be in for that to be your motive!' Whereas things like blackmail, jealousy - they're rational reasons for committing murder. "
Sophie Hannah
Like
Want
You
" Crime fiction is a way of satisfying that nosy need to know. "
Sophie Hannah
Know
Way
Need
" When my children were very young, I was slated to go on a business trip. When it was nearly canceled, I decided I wouldn't tell anyone and go off for a week's vacation anyway. In the end, the trip went off as planned. But I was intrigued by the idea of an illicit holiday. "
Sophie Hannah
Business
Children
Week
" For me, a big part of writing psychological thrillers is choosing crimes committed for motives which would only apply to a particular person in a particular situation; a unique, one-off motive that is born out of someone's particular range of psychological afflictions. "
Sophie Hannah
Unique
Born
Me
" My favourite Friday treat is to drive out of the centre of Cambridge, where we live, and go for a swim at the health club I've just joined out in the countryside at Quy. It's a lovely pool, inside a converted barn. Usually it's just me and a couple of other swimmers there. "
Sophie Hannah
Live
Me
Treat
" Nobody has ever written as many enjoyable, fun-to-read crime novels as Agatha Christie. It's all about the storytelling and the pleasure of the reader. She doesn't want to be deep or highbrow. "
Sophie Hannah
Nobody
Crime
She
" Most crime fiction plots are not ambitious enough for me. I want something really labyrinthine with clues and puzzles that will reward careful attention. "
Sophie Hannah
Attention
Reward
Enough
" I am actually incredibly contented and jolly. But, and I have no idea why this is, I have a really strong empathy with all kinds of warped and destructive modes of thinking. I don't know why, but those things co-exist. "
Sophie Hannah
Thinking
Strong
Know
" My crime novels are highly structured. I never start out with a dead body. I start with an impossible scenario. Opening questions should be mysterious, weird, intriguing, and contain the seeds of the solution. The structure has to be meticulous - I'm a structure freak. "
Sophie Hannah
Weird
Impossible
Body
" When I set out to write crime fiction, I didn't think to myself, 'I'm going to model myself on Agatha Christie' or 'I am going to be a crime writer in the Christie tradition'. "
Sophie Hannah
Myself
Crime
Tradition
" Reading is the only area of my life in which I prefer to be non-autonomous. "
Sophie Hannah
Only
Reading
My Life
" No one has been buried at Mill Road Cemetery in Cambridge, England, for many years, and so the place has a shady, overgrown magic about it. "
Sophie Hannah
Road
Cemetery
Place
" What surprised me most while writing 'The Monogram Murders' was that everything I needed seemed to arrive in my head exactly when I needed it. "
Sophie Hannah
Head
Me
Most
" All through childhood, I wrote verses and mysteries. There is, for me, one connection: structure. My poetry is metrical, rhyming. "
Sophie Hannah
Wrote
Childhood
Poetry
" No highbrow literary type would ever say 'Moby Dick' is good but it's just about a whale, or a Jane Austen would be important if she wasn't just writing about romantic relationships. "
Sophie Hannah
Good
She
Writing
" I am trying to write novels for properly clever people, but I also want them to be proper novels that also stick in a person's mind and have an atmosphere about them. "
Sophie Hannah
I Am
Want
Trying
" Poirot is a classic character from fiction, not a MacBook Air; he would not benefit from updates. "
Sophie Hannah
Fiction
He
Air
" There are very few well-adjusted people in my books. But I do think that's normal. Because everyone does have their issues and hang-ups. "
Sophie Hannah
Books
Everyone
Think
" My characters all have issues, but I don't see that as weird or abnormal because I think in real life there are very few bland, normal people. "
Sophie Hannah
Think
Weird
Real Life
" Try as I might, Agatha Christie is unique. The actual writing style can't be exactly the same, so instead of trying to replicate it exactly, the way I got around it was by inventing a new narrator. "
Sophie Hannah
Writing
Way
Unique
" I was working as a secretary in Manchester and thought I would always do that. Then I got this letter offering me a two-year fellowship where I could write; they would pay me a salary and give me a flat to live in. It was heaven. "
Sophie Hannah
Live
Pay
Thought
" The brilliant thing about swimming is that, while you're doing it, there's nothing else you could be getting on with, like the ironing or sorting out the children. My mind goes into free-float mode; some of the best ideas for plots come into my head while I'm ploughing up and down the pool. "
Sophie Hannah
Best
Mind
Ideas
" In a crime novel, if you are going to have a big revelation in chapter 30, you have to plant the information in chapters three and 11. "
Sophie Hannah
Three
You
Plant