It’s not in the book or in the writer that readers discern the truth of what they read; they see it in themselves, if the light of truth has penetrated their minds.
When we read a book, our most essential trait – imagination – is given the opportunity to soar.
I write about myself with the same pencil and in the same exercise book as about him. It is no longer I, but another whose life is just beginning.
I don’t talk about my books while I’m writing them: not even my husband knows what a novel’s about until it’s done.
I think as a writer one of the benefits is that you can put things that you’re interested in into your books. I always have put a lot of food and restaurants because I was a waitress and I love to eat.
My agent is so totally honest, which is just what every writer needs. She won’t let me sell a crappy book, even if I want to.
I have SO many books I didn’t sell. Some my agent rejected outright, others made it all the way to my editor to be turned away. Not everything is a winner, which is tough when you’ve devoted eight or nine months of your life to something.
I think readers are just looking for things that maybe they recognize or can relate to in the books.
Every book teaches me something about my process, and they are all challenging in one way or another.
I think my biggest problem, though, at least in drafts, is not repeating myself. After eight books I get worried that a character or piece of dialog might be too much like something I’ve already done. So it’s a challenge to keep it fresh.
Once I’m done with a book, I’m done! I’m just not a sequel kind of girl. By the time I’ve finished a book I’ve read it so many times that it’s time to move on.
My dad is a retired Shakespeare professor, my mother a retired classicist. Suffice to say I grew up in a house full of books, where reading was encouraged if not required.
My books are so tame!
Each time, I think I’m never going to write another book. It never gets easier.
I think part of the problem sometimes is that there’s so much happening in my books, to whittle it down into a single script is hard.
When I pictured myself, it was always like just an outline in a colouring book, with the inside not yet completed.
It was a basic plot in any number of her books: girl strikes out, makes good, finds love, gets revenge. In that order. The making good and striking out part I liked. The rest would just be bonus.
I believe that everybody needs to tell their story – to be heard, to be seen, to be acknowledged, to be understood. We all want that, deep down inside – and writing a book is a great way to make sense of your own experience and to share it with others.
What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.
A multitude of books distracts the mind.