I started to write as a child as soon as I could read, or even before, when my mother read me Beatrix Potter at bedtime. Writing seemed to me to be the only sensible way to live and be happy. — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
“What I don't want is to be called an octogenarian. I saw 'Octogenarian Jane Gardam' and I thought 'Blow me!' I mean, I am,… — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
I just knew I would be a writer. It just seemed the only sensible thing to do. — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
I think the most dangerous influence for a young writer is to be treated with cynicism or discouragement. — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
“His colleagues at the Bar called him Filth, but not out of irony. It was because he was considered to be the source of… — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
When I was young and the empire was beginning to disintegrate, the idea was absolutely unbelievable, particularly to children who'd been taught that the… — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
I hate the idea of sequels. I think you should be able to do it in one book. — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
Only a great genius like the Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell can be mother, wife and novelist without solitude. I couldn't write until my youngest… — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
I longed from a tiny child to get away on my own. When I was five, I walked out along the sands from Redcar,… — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
The complexion of a novelist is seldom rosy (Paul Bailey once announced to a heavy-hearted audience of novelists at PEN that we have always… — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
Stories of all lengths and depths come from different parts of the cave. For a novel, you must lay in mental, physical and spiritual… — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
English country life is more like Chekhov than 'The Archers' or Thomas Hardy or even the Updike ethic with which it is sometimes compared. — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
Mum was a tremendous Anglo-Catholic. Very impressive, actually. She made me go to church for years - I still don't want to because of… — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
I was nearly 40 when I started. I had no fear that I wasn't going to write. I knew it was just delayed. Then,… — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
“So the years passed and everyone grew old and Nell’s husband died and Hilda grew to be a large, angry sort of woman very… — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
