I don't like to do too much psychological research because it might turn a character into a patchwork.

Sara Zarr

Categorized in : Character Might Research

I played the clarinet, and my sister played the violin... If wed had the discipline and the passion, maybe we could have been good.

violin passion discipline

My first job is to write the characters as full and authentic peo... by Sara Zarr

My first job is to write the characters as full and authentic people as well as I can.

writing jobs character

I wouldn't say I'm stuck in my adolescence, but I think, like a lot of people, I carry my teen years with me. I feel really in touch with those feelings, and how intense and complicated life seems in those years.

people years thinking

I'm always in a place that is sincere but conflicted about different things that come with being a Christian and being an active, churchgoing Christian.

sincere different christian

My books have been translated into various languages and sold in other countries, but I never have any contact with the foreign publishers and am so disconnected from that process that it seems almost imaginary. With 'How to Save a Life', I worked closely with Usborne editors and have been involved in the publicity.

editors country book

My parents met in music school and my father was a music professor and conductor. Growing up, we always had classical and contemporary music playing. There was a lot of Mozart and the Beatles.

growing-up father school

One of my favorite authors is Robert Cormier. He was a devout Catholic and a very nice man, which might not be the impression you get from reading his books.

nice reading book

When the reader and one narrator know something the other narrator does not, the opportunities for suspense and plot development and the shifting of reader sympathies get really interesting.

suspense opportunity interesting

I wanted to be free to write the way I wanted to write, and my impression of Christian publishing, at least in fiction, was that there wasn't room for what I wanted to write.

christian writing fiction

There's a lot that is awful. That's the struggle of getting old. To make sure you don't let what's hard...obscure the beauty.

obscure awful struggle

We'd need a miracle," he says. "A real one. Do you think those ha... by Sara Zarr

We'd need a miracle," he says. "A real one. Do you think those happen anymore?

miracle real thinking

It's like a Venn diagram of tragedy. by Sara Zarr

It's like a Venn diagram of tragedy.

diagrams tragedy

It's not words, so much, just my mind going blank and thoughts reaching up up up, me wishing I could climb through the ceiling and over the stars until I can find God, really see God, and know once and for all that everything I've believed my whole life is true, and real. Or, not even everything. Not even half. Just the part about someone or something bigger than us who doesn't lose track. I want to believe the stories, that there really is someone who would search the whole mountainside just to find that one lost thing that he loves, and bring it home.

stars real believe

the past only had whatever power you gave it; life was what you made it and if you wanted something different from what you had, it was up to you to make it happen.

up-to-you different past

Other memories stick, no matter how much you wish they wouldn’t. They’re like a song you hate but can’t ever get completely out of your head, and this song becomes the background noise of your entire life, snippets of lyrics and lines of music floating up and then receding, a crazy kind of tide that never stops.

hate song memories

A know a place called New Beginnings, but I don't think it works quite like that. You can't just erase everything that came before.

erase new-beginnings thinking

Can it really be love if we don't talk that much, don't see each other? Isn't love something that happens between people who spend time together and know each other's faults and take care of each other?...In the end, I decide that the mark we've left on each other is the color and shape of love.

color together people

Remember that no matter where I am or what I'm doing I've got a special place inside me that's all for you. It's been there since the day we met.

special matter remember

I looked at my hand resting on the shelf of the prop cabinet, thinking of the scars that were there whether anyone could see them or not.

cabinets hands thinking

Ethan and I are done," I said finally. "I'm sorry." "He was my first boyfriend." "I know." "The only real boyfriend I've had. I'm a senior in high school and he was my only real boyfriend." "I know." "And I won't find another one at Jones Hall. That is guaranteed." "Okay." "This is all very sad and tragic," I said. Alan unwrapped a sleeve of Smarties. "Yet, oddly, you don't seem that upset." "I know.

senior real sorry