Sonya Hartnett Quotes

I tell the stories that are of interest to me.

What's the challenge in writing a novel that few people will read? I'm more than happy writing what I do and have no plans to change that.

Screenplays I didn't really care about, journalism, travel books, getting my writer friends to write about their dreams or something. I just determined to write the books I had to write.

I started writing to please myself, a story I would like to read, and that is still true.

The hardest part is not to repeat yourself. I don't really believe my core obsessions are going to change, but you need to look for ways to express them that are different. The main reason for doing that is not to bore yourself, and obviously, I don't want to bore readers.

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.

Robert Ludlum, all of them, write the absolute best they can. You can't tone it down. You just do what you do, and if it comes out literary, so be it.

I was always writing the books that I wanted to write, books that demanded to be written at the time. But, like most writers, you start off feeling your way.

I write what I'd like to read and just hope that, along the way, others might like to read them, too.

As a writer, you have to first of all write what you want to. Listen to advice, by all means, but don't get bogged down in it.

There's actually nothing interesting about me except what I write.

The writer can choose what he writes about but he cannot choose what he is able to make live.

I love to write what I see and what I do and what I experience, and I like to see if people can relate to that. I don't know if I am as good at making up a story in my head that has no truth to it, so that is a challenge for me.

What I'm trying to do is to write a story. If you take something from it, that's wonderful; if you don't, that's wonderful as well.

Literature for me isn't a workaday job, but something which involves desires, dreams and fantasy.

My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.

My job is to put words together and tell a story. If that doesn't work for you, it's not a war crime.

I don't believe in writing for goals, or else I'd write essays.

I write the books to amuse myself.

In the most self-protective of ways, I don't think about the reader when I'm writing - I just think about the story.

I'm always thinking about stories and ideas, and I have a few I'd like to actively pursue, but as much as I love them, I love the process of creation, and I want to go on and create things for myself, and create new things.

I've never written specifically for children as such. I write to please myself, and if it is suitable, it gets printed as a children's book.

I think writing gives me creative freedom.

I'm not thinking when I'm writing, 'How's this going to read?' Or, 'What percentage of the audience is going to stay with me?' The thing itself is what gives me pleasure. Sometimes stuff just falls onto the page so beautifully and happily that it's deeply satisfying. It's selfish!

All fiction becomes autobiographical when the author has true talent.