Tana French

We moved around a lot when I was kid. I'd lived in three continents before I was 12.

— Tana French

My memories of them had rubbed thin with overuse, worn to frail color transparencies flickering on the walls of my mind

— Tana French

When we can't see a pattern, we fit pieces together until one takes shape, because we have to.

— Tana French

I'm slightly in awe of writers, such as Sophie Hannah, who follow outlines.

— Tana French

“Have a good laugh at this, ... Deep down, I never for a second never thought they would find anything.”

— Tana French

In terms of pure volume, I probably read more psychological mystery and historical true crime than anything else.

— Tana French

“All my signposts had gone up in one blinding, dizzying explosion [...] none of the scenery looked familiar anymore.”

— Tana French

“I filed him in my mental database under Useless Prick, for future reference.”

— Tana French

“We’ve become a nation of defaulters: we buy on credit, and when the bill comes in, we’re so deeply outraged that we…

— Tana French

If you rewrite a paragraph fifty times and forty-nine of them are terrible, that's fine; you only need to get it right…

— Tana French

I don't do that kind of negativity. If you put your energy into thinking about how much the fall would hurt, you're…

— Tana French

“It was as if Tutankhamen or Miss Havisham had wandered into the pub one night and started bitching about the head on…

— Tana French

Both back when I was acting and now that I'm writing, I've always wanted the same thing out of my career: to…

— Tana French

“Something rippled round the table: a loosening, a settling, a long sigh too low to hear. Un ange passe, my French grandfather…

— Tana French

“And I didn't need telepathy, either. Ask any woman you're ever had a relationship with: I guarantee she knew she was second…

— Tana French

It's OK to screw up. For me, this was the big revelation when I was writing my first book, 'In the Woods':…

— Tana French

“... But that age; remember that age? They’re not the same. They don’t put things together. That’s why half of what they…

— Tana French

You start admiring someone who's famous for actually doing something---imagine that---and I swear to you I will buy you every item in…

— Tana French

“A girl gives her boyfriend an alibi for the evening when we suspect him of robbing a north-side Centra and stabbing the…

— Tana French

“I needed to go into that bare, with nothing from my own life on my body, the way woodcutters' children in fairy…

— Tana French

“In every way that mattered, we lost and we lost big. Some people are little Chernobyls, shimmering with silent, spreading poison: get…

— Tana French

“I wasn't sure what I thought of the direction in which this appeared to be going, but I felt a sudden, unwelcome…

— Tana French

“I suppose I've always had a yearning, in spite of the fact that I am temperamentally unsuited to the role in every…

— Tana French

“It stunned me. I had never said it before. I knew that I would never say it again, not really; that you…

— Tana French

I read a lot. I always have, but in those two years I gorged myself on books with a voluptuous, almost erotic…

— Tana French

“For about five minutes, as I tried to get the Vespa to start, I fell in love with her. The oversized raincoat…

— Tana French

“…Obviously, I have always wished I could remember what happened in that wood. The very few people who know about the whole…

— Tana French

“Every detective has a certain kind of case that he or she finds almost unbearable, against which the usual shield of practiced…

— Tana French

“Like, okay. Everyone in history thought they were the ones who finally knew everything. In their naissance, right, they were positive they…

— Tana French

“This is not an easy thing to admit, but until that moment I had held out some craven speck of hope that…

— Tana French

But this is what I know about people getting ready to walk of the edge of their own lives: they want someone…

— Tana French

“She hears all the voices from when she was little, soothing, strengthening: Don’t be scared, not of monsters, not of witches, not…

— Tana French

I remember reading about the Marie Celeste when I was a kid and becoming obsessed with what happened.

— Tana French

What I am telling you, before you begin my story, is this -- two things: I crave truth. And I lie.

— Tana French

Here's a little tip for you. If you don't like being called a murderer, don't kill people.

— Tana French

“Some people should never meet. The fallout spreads too wide and gets into the ground for much too long.”

— Tana French

“I always figured nerves were for Jane Austen characters and helium-voiced girls who never buy their round; I would no more have…

— Tana French

“She doesn't approve of either sentimentality or graveyard humor at crime scenes. She says they waste time that should be spent working…

— Tana French

“That spike of terror went through me again. He was like a raptor, not cruel, not good or evil, only and utterly…

— Tana French

When you're too close to people, when you spend too much time with them and love them too dearly, sometimes you can't…

— Tana French