He smiled to show he meant no offense, but Scott takes…

Just because we think of wolves (or the wilderness, or another race) as wild and fierce, doesn't mean there isn't another side to them.

— Stef Penney

I definitely do feel a pull toward people and places that are far from my own life.

— Stef Penney

I don't think I could write about someone I didn't feel some sympathy for.

— Stef Penney

Whenever I pick up a book I think, "Tell me something I don't know."

— Stef Penney

Initially I only decided to try and write a novel because I wasn't getting enough screenwriting work. It wasn't a long-held ambition, and certainly…

— Stef Penney

...it just goes to show you can't leave anything behind. You bring it all with you, whether you want to or not.

— Stef Penney

I love research, and in fact it's liberating because you have to create your own world. No one can say "I've just got back…

— Stef Penney

I suppose the short chapters and differing narrative points of view are quite "cinematic" devices, which came very naturally to me.

— Stef Penney

I don't use real people for inspiration.

— Stef Penney

If writers stuck to firsthand experience, novels would be pretty limited.

— Stef Penney

Gypsies are, to say the least, underrepresented in literature and film.

— Stef Penney

I despise this weakness in myself--this endless one-sided conversation that takes the place of action...

— Stef Penney

“He thought of the next Saturday. [...] He thought of the picnic by the dipping pool on the river, where oaks and willows dappled…

— Stef Penney

Clearly the secret of happiness...is a variation on the general principle of banging your head against a wall, and then stopping.

— Stef Penney

Endings are never neat, because when life goes on, there is no end. You may want to speculate about what the characters get up…

— Stef Penney