Stef Penney

Professions :

Born :

1969

Clearly the secret of happiness...is a variation on the general principle of banging your head against a wall, and then stopping.

wall principles secret

I despise this weakness in myself - this endless one-sided conversation that takes the place of action.

despise weakness action

...it just goes to show you can't leave anything behind. You bring it all with you, whether you want to or not.

behind-you shows want

Endings are never neat, because when life goes on, there is no end. You may want to speculate about what the characters get up to afterwards, but I feel it would be presumptuous of me to dictate that.

would-be want character

I definitely do feel a pull toward people and places that are far... by Stef Penney

I definitely do feel a pull toward people and places that are far from my own life.

my-own feels people

Just because we think of wolves (or the wilderness, or another race) as wild and fierce, doesn't mean there isn't another side to them.

race mean thinking

I don't think I could write about someone I didn't feel some symp... by Stef Penney

I don't think I could write about someone I didn't feel some sympathy for.

writing feels thinking

I don't use real people for inspiration. by Stef Penney

I don't use real people for inspiration.

inspiration real people

If writers stuck to firsthand experience, novels would be pretty... by Stef Penney

If writers stuck to firsthand experience, novels would be pretty limited.

stuck novel would-be

I suppose the short chapters and differing narrative points of view are quite "cinematic" devices, which came very naturally to me.

chapters narrative views

Initially I only decided to try and write a novel because I wasn't getting enough screenwriting work. It wasn't a long-held ambition, and certainly the idea came first.

ambition writing ideas

Gypsies are, to say the least, underrepresented in literature and... by Stef Penney

Gypsies are, to say the least, underrepresented in literature and film.

gypsy film literature

Because I work quite slowly, I have to keep myself interested over a long research and writing period. So I can't see myself writing about modern middle-class Londoners anytime soon.

writing class long

Whenever I pick up a book I think, "Tell me something I don't kno... by Stef Penney

Whenever I pick up a book I think, "Tell me something I don't know."

knows book thinking

I love research, and in fact it's liberating because you have to create your own world. No one can say "I've just got back from the 1860s, and you got it wrong." Anyway, it's fiction.

research fiction world

Ihab Hassan

Ingmar Bergman

Isabella Bird

Ivan E. Coyote

Al Feldstein

Bert Sugar