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Portrait of Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue

(1969) Literary Historian Canada

232 quotes in 861 categories

Emma Donoghue writes about everyday puzzles. She says that telling the truth to children can feel like a lie, and that real loneliness happens when no one misses you. She also describes a sudden moment when two people realize they like each other more than they truly know one another.

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Emma Donoghue is a literary historian from Canada, best known for Room.

Quick Facts About Emma Donoghue

Born: October 24, 1969
Nationality: Canada
Profession: Literary Historian
Notable works: Room

About Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue writes novels, screenplays, plays and studies literary history. In addition to Room, her 1995 novel Hood earned the Stonewall Book Award, and her 2000 book Slammerkin won the Ferro‑Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction. She received the Alex Awards in 2011. Donoghue turned Room into a movie and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2025 she was honored with the Alice B Readers Award for her consistently well‑written works about lesbians.

Awards & Honors

Stonewall Book Award Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction Ferro-Grumley Award AWB Vincent Literary Award

Quotes by Emma Donoghue

“The crow flew closer, as if to hear its praises.”

Bird

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Any parent knows how to be the ideal parent.

Child

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It's painful to consider anything but writing.

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“A lot of the world seems to repeat itself”

Humor

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“It's you that matters though, just you.”

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People are locked up in all sorts of ways.

Inspirational

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Maybe I’m a human, but I’m a me-and-Ma as well.

Human

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“I've seen the world and I'm tired now.”

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“You know who you belong to, Jack?” “Yeah.” “Yourself.” He’s wrong, actually, I belong to Ma.”

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People don't always want to be with people. It gets tiring.

People

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I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened.

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“I've been in the world three weeks and a half, I still never know what's going to hurt.”

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“The days of my vanity are over and heaven knows they weren't happy enough to regret”

Pride

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Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.

Brave

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“It’s called mind over matter. If we don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

Inspirational

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“Ambition was an itch in Mary's show, a maggot in her guts.”

Ambition

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I'm constantly saying, 'I read a fascinating article in 'The New Yorker'... ' I say it so often that sometimes I think…

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I'm really aware that in fiction, women are pretty much equal. There's a lot of very successful women novelists. Not so much…

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You're meant to have an unhappy childhood to be a writer, but there's a lot to be said for a very happy…

Childhood

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So much as I enjoy big novels of epic sweep, I often find, say, if they follow several generations, by the third…

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For all that being a parent is normal statistically, it's not normal psychologically. It produces some of the most extreme emotions you'll…

Being a parent

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“I thought humans were or weren't, I didn't know someone could be a bit human. Then what are his other bits?”

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You cannot predict literary success; the only way you can possibly aim for it is to do your thing and do it…

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One thing I like about historical fiction is that I'm not constantly focusing on me, or people like me; you're obliged to…

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“Driving home I see the playground but it's all wrong, the swings are on the opposite side. "Oh, Jack, that's a different…

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You know, plenty of people headed off to Canada or America on the basis of government information, propaganda campaigns. Often you'd go…

America

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“I'd love to watch TV all the time, but it rots our brains. Before I came down from Heaven Ma left it…

Television

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In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time...I don't know how persons with jobs do the…

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“It's weird to have something that's mine-not-Ma's. Everything else is both of ours. I guess my body is mine and the ideas…

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Kissing a witch is a perilous business. Everybody knows it's ten times as dangerous as letting her touch your hand, or cut…

Business

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Sometimes, I think there's a lack of ambition in me. But then sometimes, I think, no, you can, like William Blake said,…

Ambition

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Before I had kids, I thought you should never lie to a kid. But now I've had them, I realize you almost…

Children

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“Today is one of the days when Ma is Gone. She won't wake up properly. She's here but not really. She stays…

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“In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time. Even Grandma often says that, but she and…

Time

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“I gazed up at the sky and let my eyes flicker from one constellation to another, to another, jumping between stepping stones.…

Destiny

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“Daffy had stopped talking, without her noticing. It was if he'd run out of words. He did a peculiar thing, then; he…

Children

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“Do you realize what a beacon you’ve become?” “A—I beg your pardon?” “A beacon of hope,” says the woman, smiling. “As soon…

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“Outside has everything. Whenever I think of a thing now like skis or fireworks or islands or elevators or yo-yos, I have…

Agoraphobia

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“In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time. Even Grandma often says that, but she and…

Kids

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“If he guessed his mistake, if he wanted me back, I thought, let him suffer and work for it as I had…

Failure

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Emma Donoghue by topic

Writing (29) Books (29) Writer (23) People (23) Time (22) Book (20) Thinking (19) World (13) Stories (13) Life (13) Film (12) Children (12) Parenting (11)