You cannot predict literary success; the only way you can possibly aim for it is to do your thing and do it well. Emma Donoghue More Quotes by Emma Donoghue More Quotes From Emma Donoghue I'm really not one of these procrastinators who cleans the house in order to put off writing, but life gets in the way. Emma Donoghue house writing order I really like to keep my palette small but to be very intense, very myopic. Emma Donoghue palette myopic intense I've always been religiously inclined, but it doesn't come up in most of my books. Emma Donoghue come-up book Identity politics are wearisome; you don't want to go on speaking for any one group as a writer. Emma Donoghue identity-politics groups goes-on The way to my heart is through Belgian milk chocolate. Emma Donoghue chocolate heart way So much as I enjoy big novels of epic sweep, I often find, say, if they follow several generations, by the third generation, I'm not caring about the people anymore. Emma Donoghue epic caring people I tend to be so lost in the work that I don't notice the weather. My partner will come home and say, 'Beautiful day, wasn't it?' and I'll say, 'Was it?' as I won't have noticed the real world at all. Emma Donoghue real home beautiful Before I had kids, I thought you should never lie to a kid. But now I've had them, I realize you almost lie to them by definition, because if you're trying to summarize something for your 1-year-old, you put it in very simple terms. You only gradually complicate the explanation as they get older. Emma Donoghue simple kids lying It turns up the heat under a narrative when you limit the characters in their movements or their freedoms. Emma Donoghue movement limits character You're meant to have an unhappy childhood to be a writer, but there's a lot to be said for a very happy one that just let's you get on with it. Emma Donoghue unhappy-childhood very-happy said She leaped into space, high, higher than she'd ever been in her life. She came down with a clean snap, and the crowd scattered like birds from the swing of her feet. Emma Donoghue swings space feet Once I spent a whole day there, a blade of grass in each hand to anchor me to the warm earth. I watched the sun rise, pass over my head and set. Ladybirds mated on my knuckle; a shrew nibbled a hole in my stocking while I tried not to laugh. Such a day was worth any punishment. Emma Donoghue punishment anchors hands When I was four I thought everything in TV was just TV, then I was five and Ma unlied about lots of it being pictures of real and Outside being totally real. Now I’m in Outside but it turns out lots of it isn’t real at all. Emma Donoghue four tvs real Change for your own sake, if you must, not for what you imagine another will ask of you. Emma Donoghue asks imagine sake I read three books a week. Emma Donoghue week three book This is a bad story.” “Sorry. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have told you.” “No, you should,” I say. “But—” “I don’t want there to be bad stories and me not know them. Emma Donoghue sorry stories want Sometimes when persons say definitely it sounds actually less true. Emma Donoghue persons sound sometimes I always wince a little bit when I send me to each of my new books. I wince at submitting myself to my father's judgment. But, of course, he's such a fond father that he always writes back, saying it's the greatest thing ever written. Emma Donoghue writing father book [E]verywhere I'm looking at kids, adults mostly don't seem to like them, not even the parents do. They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don't want to actually play with them, they'd rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there's a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn't even hear. Emma Donoghue coffee cute kids For all the books in his possession, he still failed to read the stories written plain as day in the faces of the people around him. Emma Donoghue stories book people
