Alternate history fascinates me, as it fascinates all novelists, because 'What if?' is the big thing. Kate Atkinson More Quotes by Kate Atkinson More Quotes From Kate Atkinson I can't help but think that it's an unfortunate custom to name children after people who come to sticky ends. Even if they are fictional characters, it doesn't bode well for the poor things. There are too many Judes and Tesses and Clarissas and Cordelias around. If we must name our children after literary figures then we should search out happy ones, although it's true they are much harder to find. Kate Atkinson character children thinking I am mad, I think. I am mad therefore I think. I am mad therefore I think I am. Kate Atkinson mad thinking Julia's vocabulary was "chock-full" of strangely archaic words - "spiffing," "crumbs," "jeepers" - that seemed to have originated in some prewar girls' annual rather than in Julia's own life. For Jackson, words were functional, they helped you get to places and explain things. For Julia, they were freighted with inexplicable emotion. Kate Atkinson vocabulary emotion girl Oh, God. What was happening to her, she was turning into a normal person. Kate Atkinson happenings normal persons They said love made you strong, but in Louise's opinion it made you weak. It corkscrewed into your heart and you couldn't get it out again, not without ripping your heart to pieces. Kate Atkinson pieces strong heart Love was the hardest thing. Don't let anyone ever tell you different. Kate Atkinson hardest-thing hardest different (although anyone with half a brain must surely be mired in existential gloom all the time) Kate Atkinson existential half brain Time was a thief, he stole your life away from you and the only way you could get it back was to outwit him and snatch it right back. Kate Atkinson thieves away-from-you way Jennifer had never liked the pain of remembering what had happened, but for Theo it was the pain that kept Laura alive in his memory. He was afraid that if it ever began to heal she would disappear. Kate Atkinson pain alive memories He was born a politician. No, Ursula thought, he was born a baby, like everyone else. And this is what he has chosen to become. Kate Atkinson born politician baby She should have done science, not spent all her time with her head in novels. Novels gave you a completely false idea about life, they told lies and they implied there were endings when in reality there were no endings, everything just went on and on and on. Kate Atkinson should-have lying reality The legacy of the fairy story in my brain is that everything will work out. In fiction it would be very hard for me, as a writer, to give a bad ending to a good character, or give a good ending to a bad character. That's probably not a very postmodern thing to say. Kate Atkinson good me work character I was an only child and grew up in York where my parents ran a surgical supplies shop. When I say I wish I had brothers and sisters, friends say it's not what it's cracked up to be, but I think it must be good to have someone who knew you from the beginning. Kate Atkinson parents good you friends I think you have to learn for yourself how to write. I'm slightly mystified by creative writing courses - God love them - because I can't understand how you can explain a process that I find so baffling. Kate Atkinson yourself you god love My work is not my life. I started writing quite late, I didn't have that 'writing is everything, my art is all.' You have to be able to recognise the difference between the two. Kate Atkinson you work life art I don't want to spoil the magic, but it's a very curious thing that honestly baffles me. It's the nearest we'll ever get to playing God, to suddenly produce these fully formed creatures. It is a bit odd. Other aspects you work out more - you rework sentences, you rework imagery. But not characters. Kate Atkinson me you god work Without siblings you get quite a skewed vision of yourself and of the world. I always felt I didn't understand how it worked. I remember feeling quite lonely. Kate Atkinson yourself you vision world I usually start writing a novel that I then abandon. When I say abandon, I don't think any writer ever abandons anything that they regard as even a half-good sentence. So you recycle. I mean, I can hang on to a sentence for several years and then put it into a book that's completely different from the one it started in. Kate Atkinson start think you book But I, you know, if I could choose a period to go back to, I think I would like to live through the Blitz. 'Cause you do read so many accounts of people saying they're living their lives at such an intense pitch that it was a completely different way of living. Kate Atkinson think you people way Because I've a track record of talking about books I never write, in Australia they think I'm about to write a book about Jane Austen. Something I said at some festival. Kate Atkinson never think talking book
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