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" 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
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" 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!' "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" 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.' "
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" I love it when novels contain a broad cast of characters, including queer ones. "
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" 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. "
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" I'm a huge planner, more and more so as the years go by. "
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Planner
" A memoir is always the most authentic telling of a situation, but a novel gets to different places. "
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Places
" It's painful to consider anything but writing. "
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" I read three books a week. "
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" 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. "
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Book
Space
" The way to my heart is through Belgian milk chocolate. "
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Way
Milk
Heart
" 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. "
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Never
People
Books
" 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. "
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Now
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" 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
" 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'm named after Jane Austen's Emma, and I've always been able to relate to her. She's strong, confident but quite tactless. "
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Always
Strong
Her
" I'm finding that success is way more time-consuming than failure ever was. "
Emma Donoghue
Failure
Success
More
" 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 am clumsy, a late and nervous driver, and despise all sports except a little gentle dancing or yoga. "
Emma Donoghue
I Am
Sports
Nervous
" 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. "
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Gift
Character
" Writers should be applauded for their ability to make things up. "
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Should
Up
Make
" I'm really not one of these procrastinators who cleans the house in order to put off writing, but life gets in the way. "
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Off
Order
Writing
" I've always been religiously inclined, but it doesn't come up in most of my books. "
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" 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. "
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" Identity politics are wearisome; you don't want to go on speaking for any one group as a writer. "
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Go
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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. "
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Background
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Shame
Genre