Quotes by Maggie O'Farrell

Maggie O'Farrell

Always, at the end of every book, there are things you will be unsatisfied with, and still more things that later on you will realize were not right. But mistakes are part of what a book is. That itchy, dissatisfied feeling at the end of a novel is useful. It’s what keeps you writing and gets you writing the next one. It’s what keeps you learning.

Book

Mistake

Writing

For a while I used to listen to those whispers about babies costing you books, and Cyril Connolly’s loathsome quote that “There is no more somber enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.” But it’s rubbish. Absolute rubbish. A huge amount of your work is done when you’re not at your desk. Knotty problems that you need your unconscious to solve. So it can be helpful to walk away and focus on other things and it can be helpful to be a bit harassed in your daily life, to be hungry for time to write.

Art

Baby

Book

I don’t believe in fate. I don’t believe in cushioning your insecurities with a system of belief that tells you ‘Don’t worry. This may be your life but you’re not in control. There is something or someone looking out for you — it’s already organised.’ It’s all chance and choice, which is far more frightening.

Believe

Fate

Worry

I don’t want to be influenced as to what I write in the next book, to hear those voices in my head when I’m writing. The idea of second-guessing your reader is dangerous, trying to please some notional reader looking over your shoulder, instead of just yourself.

Book

Over You

Writing

I have two sisters, and I think siblings are always going to be irresistible for novelists. They have been throughout time and they’ll continue to be.

Irresistible

Sibling

Thinking

I met a retired police detective. And he said to me that the interesting thing about heatwaves, from a police perspective, is that the number of people who just walk out of their lives when the weather gets unbearable is astronomic. He said the police prepare themselves for it – for a huge rise in the instances of missing persons. People choose to disappear when it’s hot. It was fascinating.

Interesting

People

Perspective

I still have a stammer. I hate it; I loathe and despise it. But it’s always there, and I have lots of ways to conceal it. I can conceal it now but I’m not good on the telephone. I get my husband to make dentist appointments. And I hate live radio. Hate it. I really try to avoid it at all costs. But it’s always there. Stammerers become skilled at sentence construction and synonyms: we have to be. Faced with a problem word, we need to have instant access to eight others we could use instead – ones we could say without stumbling. I think my stammer is a huge part of my being a writer.

Hate

Husband

Thinking

I think all families have these secrets, and it’s sometimes the strangest things that bring them out. That was part of my interest in the heatwave, in heat as a catalyst for uncovering truths. I was reading Alice in Wonderland to one of my kids recently, and I remembered that it starts on a really hot day. Alice falls asleep because of the heat; the whole story is predicated on falling into a heat-fueled dream.

Dream

Fall

Reading

I think it’s dangerous to have lots of time on your hands as a writer. Time to pursue every little alleyway, to follow every single whim. I feel I’ve done my best writing when I’m stretched for time, when you’re most pressured.

Done

Thinking

Writing

I try not to be too precious about my writing, and I try to be willing to walk away from it for a few hours when something’s not working, to let things percolate a bit. I try not to hide myself away from life too much, because I think that’s a risky thing for a writer to do.

Thinking

Trying

Writing

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

Ability

Art

Baby

Believe

Block

Book

Childhood

Children

Dad

Done

Dream

Energy

Fall

Fate

Feminism

Feminist

Giving

Happens

Hate

His Smile

Home

Husband

Independent

Interesting

Irresistible

Laughing

Long

Love You

Mistake

Mother

Over You

People

Persons

Perspective

Political

Reading

Real

School

Sea

Sibling

Son

Stories

Struggle

Sunday

Taken

Teacher

Terrible

Terrible Things

Thinking

Tree

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Quotes by Maggie O'Farrell

Maggie O'Farrell

I don’t want to be influenced as to what I write in the next book, to hear those voices in my head when I’m writing. The idea of second-guessing your reader is dangerous, trying to please some notional reader looking over your shoulder, instead of just yourself.

I have two sisters, and I think siblings are always going to be irresistible for novelists. They have been throughout time and they’ll continue to be.

I think it’s dangerous to have lots of time on your hands as a writer. Time to pursue every little alleyway, to follow every single whim. I feel I’ve done my best writing when I’m stretched for time, when you’re most pressured.

I try not to be too precious about my writing, and I try to be willing to walk away from it for a few hours when something’s not working, to let things percolate a bit. I try not to hide myself away from life too much, because I think that’s a risky thing for a writer to do.

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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