Elena Anaya Quotes

I love telling stories. Creating a character, a world, a whole universe out of nothing. That part I can't get enough of.

A notion for a story is for me a confluence of real events, historical perhaps, or from my own memory to create an exciting fusion.

Obviously any fiction is going to be a combination of what is invented, what is overheard, what is experienced, what is experienced by people close to you, what you are told, what you have read, all mixed together into this kind of soup which, like any good soup, at the end you cannot really distinguish the ingredients.

I don't think in terms of optimism and pessimism when writing a story. I am telling a story.

My stories run up and bite me on the leg - I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.

I feel like my brain is more geared towards a novel than it is to a movie.

I don't care whether the story is real or fantastical. I tell the story that needs to be told.

What I like about writing a stand alone novel is you're starting with a fresh world and fresh characters. Part of what I love about writing is that journey of discovery where it's all new to me as well.

I don't think any good book is based on factual experience. Bad books are about things the writer already knew before he wrote them.

Fiction is very important to me. It's what I do, it's what I do with my life.

All my fiction starts from a feeling of unique perception, the pressure of a secret, a story that needs to be told.

Quite casually I wander into my plot, poke around with my characters for a while, then amble off, leaving no moral proved and no reader improved.

Novels give you the opportunity to create a whole world. Because you create people, you make them talk... You decide who they are, whether they live or die. It's the closest thing to feeling like a god that you can come to.

I know it may sound silly, but I think my short stories have a life and identity of their own. They crop up in all sorts of places.

Stories develop from things I read and also from my own experiences and experiences of people I know.

Sometimes my lyrics may describe a situation that happened to a friend. Other times, I create a story from the ground up.

In journalism I can only tell what happened. In fiction, I can show it.

I love stories. I just enjoy telling stories and watching what these characters do - although writing continues to be just as hard as it always was.

Writing is writing to me. I'm incapable of saying no to any writing job, so I've done everything - historical fiction, myths, fairy tales, anything that anybody expresses any interest in me writing, I'll write. It's the same reason I used to read as a child: I like going somewhere else and being someone else.

It's all about letting the story take over.

I like to think that I am telling a story rather than writing it.

I want to work with anyone who's passionate about telling a story. I obviously have a list of people I really love, but it's a really long list.

I'm more into describing a scenario and I move around in that scenario.

I used to be a freelance journalist, so I had to write fast, but I always found writing nonfiction constraining. I like the freedom of fiction, where I get to invent everything, and tidy, conclusive endings are within my control.

I don't really set out to explore grand themes. I set out to tell a story. And one I have to be able to imagine right through.