I wanted to be a novelist from a very early age - 11 or 12 - but I don't think I ever thought I would write historical fiction. I never thought I might write academic history because I simply wasn't good enough! — Pat Barker Copy Share Image
“But I shot the dog myself. I took him into the barn holding on to his collar. He knew something bad was going to… — Pat Barker Copy Share
When I'm writing the first draft, I'm writing in a very slovenly way: anything to get the outline of the story on paper. — Pat Barker Copy Share
When writing about historical characters I try to be as accurate as possible, and in particular not to misrepresent the view they held. With… — Pat Barker Copy Share
That balance between involvement and detachment is what novelists do. It's the ideal relationship between a novelist and a character, I think, total involvement… — Pat Barker Copy Share
The sky darkened, the air grew colder, but he didn't mind. It didn't occur to him to move. This was the right place. This… — Pat Barker Copy Share
'Undertones of War' by Edmund Blunden seems to get less attention than the memoirs of Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, but it is a… — Pat Barker Copy Share
I don't think it's possible to c-call yourself a C-Christian and... and j-just leave out the awkward bits.' -Wilfred Owen — Pat Barker Copy Share
The way I see it, when you put the uniform on, in effect you sign a contract. And you don't back out of a… — Pat Barker Copy Share
Fiction should be about moral dilemmas that are so bloody difficult that the author doesn't know the answer. — Pat Barker Copy Share
My grandmother's first husband was a spiritualist medium. What fascinates me about that is the balance between conviction and sincerity and trickery, which is… — Pat Barker Copy Share
“It was... the Great White God de-throned, I suppose. Because we did, we quite unselfconsciously assumed we were the measure of all things. That… — Pat Barker Copy Share
Sometimes, in the trenches, you get the sense of something, ancient. One trench we held, it had skulls in the side, embedded, like mushrooms.… — Pat Barker Copy Share
