We all have a family, whether we like it or not; we all come from somewhere, and there's something strange in the… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
I think it was Rose Macaulay who said, "A house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived." — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
Why isn't life better designed so it warns you when terrible things are about to happen? — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
“Mainly, she lived. She got on with the small acts of life. She continued to ensure that - in the phrase she… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
“It was always the meaningless tasks that endure: the washing, the cooing, the clearing, the cleaning. Never anything majestic or significant, just… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
“That the things in life which don't go to plan are usually more important, more formative, in the long run, than the… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
She wanted to say, no. She wanted to say, I have a son, there is a child, this cannot happen. Because you know that… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
Two and a half thousand left-handed people are killed every year using things made for right-handed people. — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
I don't believe in fate. I don't believe in cushioning your insecurities with a system of belief that tells you 'Don't worry. This may… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
I met a retired police detective. And he said to me that the interesting thing about heatwaves, from a police perspective, is that the… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
While I was writing the book, one of my children was diagnosed with dyslexia. Dyslexia is a very tiny word for a wide-ranging neurological… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
“Why is it that twenty-four hours in the company of your family is capable of reducing you to a teenager?” — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
I think it's dangerous to have lots of time on your hands as a writer. Time to pursue every little alleyway, to follow every… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
I think all families have these secrets, and it's sometimes the strangest things that bring them out. That was part of my interest in… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
My husband, William Sutcliffe, the writer, is my first reader and in many ways my most important. That initial reading of the manuscript is… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
She liked the way his smile took a long time to arrive and just as long to leave. — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
“That's because they're of the past. All photos of the past look melancholy and wistful precisely because they capture something that's gone.” — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
We always planned to move back to the Republic but it never happened, I'm not sure why. My dad is one of those immigrants… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
