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" You always hope you'll surprise somebody with the work. If you write something human and appealing, the perfect reader could be anyone. "
Sarah Hall
Work
Hope
Surprise
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" Show, don't tell, is a mantra repeated by tutors of creative writing courses the world over. As advice for amateurs, it is sound and helps avoid character profiling, unactivated scenes, and broken narrative frames. "
Sarah Hall
Writing
Sound
Character
" I am a feminist, although I always worry saying that because you then get people asking you about the 1970s. "
Sarah Hall
People
I Am
Always
" Revisiting much-loved childhood novels is never easy. "
Sarah Hall
Easy
Never
Childhood
" I was brought up in the north of England, which is probably no rougher than anywhere else, but I remember as a child being kind of mesmerized by girls fighting on the playground. "
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Up
Remember
Kind
" Various books revolutionised what I think about novels and showed me that they're not strict, formulaic things. 'Coming Through Slaughter' by Michael Ondaatje was one of them. "
Sarah Hall
Think
About
Through
" Our lives are politically wound. "
Sarah Hall
Politically
Our
Our Lives
" I've always been interested in wolves, since I was a child. There was a wolf enclosure in a wildlife park very close to where I was brought up; they were the main attraction. "
Sarah Hall
Child
Always
Wildlife
" Wonderful characters rotate around and through bookshops on a daily basis, competing with and possibly even triumphing over fiction when it comes to entertainment, strangeness and inspiration. "
Sarah Hall
Daily
Inspiration
Wonderful
" My favourite pool is located in a remote valley in the eastern Lake District, surrounded by vine-hung cliffs and slippery boulders. It has a torrential sheet waterfall at one end and is almost black in colour, so it appears bottomless, a portal to nowhere. "
Sarah Hall
Pool
Waterfall
Lake
" I can gabble on now, but I couldn't when I was a kid, so I spent a lot of time in my own head on the moors by myself. It felt like writing was the right way to express myself. "
Sarah Hall
Writing
Time
Myself
" I think you can tell any human story in a particular place. "
Sarah Hall
Story
Place
Human
" Nightmares of a capital city overwhelmed by tsunami, war or plague transfix us, but catastrophe is first felt locally, and there are many homes outside the city. "
Sarah Hall
Overwhelmed
First
Outside
" I don't like novels that tie everything up in a plot-y way. I always think that's not really true of life, particularly of people in power. "
Sarah Hall
Power
Think
Always
" I was the feral, mud-bathing, tree-climbing variety of child. Why would I want to read about pirates when I could build a raft and terrorise sheep along the riverbanks? "
Sarah Hall
Variety
Sheep
Child
" Swimming in the U.K. is not really about enjoying a sultry experience. It's about cold, clear acts of purification, and constitutional durability. It's about invigoration and bravado. "
Sarah Hall
Clear
Cold
Experience
" I was brought up in Cumbria where I saw all these fierce agricultural women. "
Sarah Hall
Up
Women
Saw
" You are often asked to explain your work, as if the reader isn't able to work it out. And people always try and label you by your work. "
Sarah Hall
Always
Explain
Try
" I don't reckon there are many writers who start out really expecting writing to be an attainable occupation. Well, I didn't. It was a pipe dream. "
Sarah Hall
Writing
Dream
Who
" Daniel Woodrell has made a name as a master of prose with personality - a densely descriptive, gamey form of storytelling, one might say traditional storytelling - of late rather an unfashionable mode. "
Sarah Hall
Master
Personality
Late
" My work is of me; it's not me. I want it to be far more extraordinary than I am. "
Sarah Hall
Extraordinary
Far
I Am
" The short story is very good at looking at shadow psychologies and how the system breaks down underneath. "
Sarah Hall
How
Looking
Short
" When you are a kid, a wolf is an amazing sight, so sumptuous. I sort of knew these were splendid creatures, that I was not going to find them outside roaming around. It was like a dog, but not a dog. It was incredible, a god! "
Sarah Hall
You
Wolf
Dog
" Set in a nameless colonial country, in an unspecified era, Katie Kitamura's second novel tracks the fortunes of a landowning family during the first waves of civil unrest. "
Sarah Hall
Colonial
Waves
First
" It's taken me 15 years to feel I might be able to write and publish short stories, and for the assiduous checks of the industry to allow some through. "
Sarah Hall
Short
Me
Years
" In my early 20s, connecting with fiction was a difficult process. There seemed to be little rhyme or reason to what was meaningful, what convinced, and what made sense. "
Sarah Hall
Process
Early
Sense
" Over the years, I've lived in a variety of places, including America, but I was born and raised in the Lake District, in Cumbria. Growing up in that rural, sodden, mountainous county has shaped my brain, perhaps even my temperament. "
Sarah Hall
Brain
America
Growing Up
" I felt impelled to write. It felt demonic, and I wanted to improve, the way some people habitually pick up a guitar and get better at playing it and making up songs. "
Sarah Hall
Better
Way
Some People
" There's nothing like the vast, dark Atlantic to remind you of your mortality. But terror can also be exhilarating. "
Sarah Hall
Dark
Your
Like
" I write in the mornings or afternoons - I'm not a night owl and can write for only four or five hours maximum. "
Sarah Hall
Four
Write
Owl
" It's a lovely feeling, just working away at the desk, putting words down, building words up... I think you have to be aware that what you're doing is not just a private act, it's a societal thing. "
Sarah Hall
Think
You
Words