When writing about historical characters I try to be as accurate as possible, and in particular not to misrepresent the view they held. With a real historical figure you have to be fair, and this is not an obligation you have in dealing with your own creations, so it is quite different.

Pat Barker

Categorized in : You Try View Writing

Another person's life, observed from the outside, always has a shape and definition that one's own life lacks.

definitions shapes persons

You know you're walking around with a mask on, and you desperately want to take it off and you can't because everybody else thinks it's your face.

faces want thinking

The past is a palimpsest. Early memories are always obscured by a... by Pat Barker

The past is a palimpsest. Early memories are always obscured by accumulations of later knowledge.

palimpsest memories past

Fiction should be about moral dilemmas that are so bloody difficult that the author doesn't know the answer. What I hate in fiction is when the author knows better than the characters what they should do.

hate character fiction

Cut a chrysalis open, and you will find a rotting caterpillar. What you will never find is that mythical creature, half caterpillar, half butterfly, a fit emblem for the human soul, for those whose cast of mind leads them to seek such emblems. No, the process of transformation consists almost entirely of decay.

butterfly cutting soul

It's the hardest thing in the world to go on being aware of someo... by Pat Barker

It's the hardest thing in the world to go on being aware of someone else's pain.

empathy pain goes-on

We are Craiglockhart's success stories. Look at us. We don't remember, we don't feel, we don't think - at least beyond the confines of what's needed to do the job. By any proper civilized standard (but what does that mean now?) we are objects of horror. But our nerves are completely steady. And we are still alive.

jobs mean thinking

Looking straight at the world is part of your duty as a writer. by Pat Barker

Looking straight at the world is part of your duty as a writer.

duty world

Half the world's work is done by hopeless neurotics. by Pat Barker

Half the world's work is done by hopeless neurotics.

done half world

Culturally, the First World War is the war that stands in for oth... by Pat Barker

Culturally, the First World War is the war that stands in for other wars.

war world firsts

A society that devours its own young deserves no automatic or unq... by Pat Barker

A society that devours its own young deserves no automatic or unquestioning allegiance.

allegiance deserve young

I don't think it's possible to c-call yourself a C-Christian and... and j-just leave out the awkward bits.' -Wilfred Owen

awkward christian thinking

The result was I went nowhere. by Pat Barker

The result was I went nowhere.

results

Murder is only killing in the wrong place. by Pat Barker

Murder is only killing in the wrong place.

murder killing

The way I see it, when you put the uniform on, in effect you sign a contract. And you don't back out of a contract merely because you've changed your mind. You can still speak up for your principles, you can still argue against the ones you're being made to fight for, but in the end you do the job.

fighting mind jobs

Sometimes, in the trenches, you get the sense of something, ancient. One trench we held, it had skulls in the side, embedded, like mushrooms. It was actually easier to believe they were men from Marlborough's army, than to think they'd been alive a year ago. It was as if all the other wars had distilled themselves into this war, and that made it something you almost can't challenge. It's like a very deep voice, saying; 'Run along, little man, be glad you've survived

running war believe

The sky darkened, the air grew colder, but he didn't mind. It didn't occur to him to move. This was the right place. This was where he had wanted to be.

air sky moving

I wasn't thinking of a sequel when I finished 'Life Class.' What changed my mind was the perception that the characters had a lot of life left in them, a lot of unresolved conflicts, and also I became interested in the Tonks pastel portraits of facially disfigured soldiers and in the whole area of facial reconstruction.

soldiers mind life thinking

I wanted to be a novelist from a very early age - 11 or 12 - but I don't think I ever thought I would write historical fiction. I never thought I might write academic history because I simply wasn't good enough!

good think age history

'Undertones of War' by Edmund Blunden seems to get less attention than the memoirs of Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, but it is a great book.

great attention war book