Sometimes you have to trust grownups, perhaps more so when they are not there to actually supervise you. Scarlett Thomas More Quotes by Scarlett Thomas More Quotes From Scarlett Thomas I erased the thought from my mind, but I couldn't undo the fact that I'd had the thought in the first place. Scarlett Thomas mind facts firsts I wonder at what point my life swerved to avoid that, and if that life would have been nicer than the one I've got. Scarlett Thomas has-beens ifs wonder One of the paradoxes of writing is that when you write non-fiction everyone tries to prove that it's wrong, and when you publish fiction, everyone tries to see the truth in it. Scarlett Thomas writing trying fiction Over to my left is the big grey wall in front of the church. Are we the Thoughts of God? a poster asks. No, I realise. It's the reverse. Scarlett Thomas posters wall church Living for ever would be like marrying yourself, with no possibility of a divorce. Scarlett Thomas possibility divorce would-be You can't do science in a novel, but you can do philosophy. Or, if you're really lucky, you can manage to pose a question in such a way that other people will take it on. Scarlett Thomas lucky philosophy people It's not even a question of whether the universe is meaningful or meaningless. It's in what way could it be meaningful, or in what way, if it was meaningful, could that be even more meaningless than normal meaninglessness? Scarlett Thomas normal meaningful way In some ways I'm a frustrated scientist or mathematician. The amount of times I've thought I'd go back to university and do theoretical physics because I like the big questions, but really I know now that that's not quite me. What's me is to do it in novels. Scarlett Thomas theoretical-physics frustrated way I think predictability is built into any good novel in some way - you begin reading Anna Karenina and you know pretty much what's going to happen at the end. But that doesn't mean you know what's going to happen in the middle. For me, it's that sense of what happens in the middle that's important. Scarlett Thomas reading mean thinking Everything I know I imagine everyone else knows as well. And then everything that everyone else knows I imagine they know on top of what I know, so I'm constantly anxious about what everyone else knows. Scarlett Thomas wells anxious imagine My novels are high concept. I guess big ideas interest me more than, say, the minutiae of domestic life. Scarlett Thomas minutiae bigs ideas I'm a great believer in gathering together all your obsessions and seeing if you can make a novel out of them. Scarlett Thomas gathering together writing I hate stereotypes and I hate cliche. Scarlett Thomas cliche stereotype hate Honesty and authenticity are a big deal for me. Scarlett Thomas authenticity honesty bigs I pray for meaning. I pray for the limits of reality to become clear. For a world – and a type of being – that makes sense. I pray for a life after death that is not like this life. I pray for the end of mystery. What would a life be like with all the mysteries solved? If there were no questions, there’d be no stories. If there were no stories, there’d be no language. If there was no language there’d be no . . . What? Scarlett Thomas life-is-like stories reality
