I'm always determined that as a novelist I'm going to go out there and research my characters very thoroughly before I start writing. — Chris Cleave Copy Share Image
[My maternal grandmother ] was a teacher in London and elsewhere during the war, although the children she taught were not the "lost children" who feature in the novel - those come from my research. — Chris Cleave Copy Share Image
I like to push characters to extremes so they have to make really tough decisions and there is no life more extreme than that… — Chris Cleave Copy Share Image
This is the forked tongue of grief again. It whispers in one ear: return to what you once loved best, and in the other… — Chris Cleave Copy Share Image
In a few breaths' time I will speak some sad words to you. But you must hear them the same way we have agreed… — Chris Cleave Copy Share Image
Wouldn't that be funny, if the oil rebels were playing U2 in their jungle camps, and the government soldiers were playing U2 in their… — Chris Cleave Copy Share Image
“When death comes you do not stay for one minute in the place it has visited. Many things arrive after death-sadness, questions, and policemen-… — Chris Cleave Copy Share Image
“I smiled down at Charlie, and I understood that he would be free now even if I would not. In this way the life… — Chris Cleave Copy Share Image
I do think it is harder to acknowledge our strengths, or to forgive ourselves and each other for our shortcomings, when there has not… — Chris Cleave Copy Share Image
I think the recent cluster of WWII novels is so good because we have reached an optimal distance from the war. Just as a… — Chris Cleave Copy Share Image
“Yu only be livin one life, darlin. Don't matter yu don't uh-preshie-ate part of it, cos it don't stop bein part of yu.” — Chris Cleave Copy Share Image
Sometimes we don't notice that someone is being brave, because they are only doing something that seems quite easy for us. — Chris Cleave Copy Share Image
![“[My maternal grandmother ] was a teacher in London and elsewhere during the war, although the children she taught were not the "lost children" who feature in the novel - those come from my research.” quote by Chris Cleave](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/02f/chris-cleave-1698_children_my-maternal-grandmother-was-a-teacher-in_2281565.jpg)
