---
title: "2 Writing Autobiographical Quotes By Diane Setterfield"
description: "2 Writing Autobiographical quotes by Diane Setterfield. Plus more from Diane Setterfield and more Writing Autobiographical sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f87/diane-setterfield-1008_believe_readers-are-fools-they-believe-all-writi_723988.png"
---

> [Readers are fools. They believe all writing is autobiographical. And so it is, but not in the way they think. The writer's life needs time to rot away before it can be used to nourish a work of fiction. it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/readers-are-fools-they-believe-all-writing-is-autobiographical-and-so/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f87/diane-setterfield-1008_believe_readers-are-fools-they-believe-all-writi_723988.png)

> [“Readers," continued Miss Winter, "are fools. They believe all writing is autobiographical. And so it is, but not in the way they think. The writer's life needs time to rot away before it can be used to nourish a work…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/readers-continued-miss-winter-are-fools-they-believe-all-writing-is/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/636/diane-setterfield-1008_bits-and-pieces_readers-continued-miss-winter-are-fools_2157570.png)

## More by Diane Setterfield

> [“They are more real than the books on the shelves, books that are sketched with the barest hint of a line here and there,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/they-are-more-real-than-the-books-on-the-shelves-books-that-are/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [“Margaret Lea.” “The biographer.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/margaret-lea-the-biographer/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [“He was the first of my ghosts.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/he-was-the-first-of-my-ghosts/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [“It was like living entirely inside a book.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/it-was-like-living-entirely-inside-a-book/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [“Then something rang a bell in his mind. What”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/then-something-rang-a-bell-in-his-mind-what/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [What better way to get to know someone than through her choice and treatment of books?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/what-better-way-to-get-to-know-someone-than-through-her-choice-and/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [“I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/i-have-always-been-a-reader-i-have-read-at-every-stage-of-my-life-and/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [“Yesterday or the day before, while I had been going about my business, quietly and in private, some unknown person—some stranger—had gone to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/yesterday-or-the-day-before-while-i-had-been-going-about-my-business/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [“the Missus stood like a ghost.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/the-missus-stood-like-a-ghost/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [“But perhaps the answer is to stop writing altogether, for when I do write, even now as I write this very sentence, this very…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/but-perhaps-the-answer-is-to-stop-writing-altogether-for-when-i-do/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [Our clients' faces, with the customary outward paleness and inner glow of the book lover.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/our-clients-faces-with-the-customary-outward-paleness-and-inner-glow/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [“He felt something move in his chest, as though an organ had been removed and something unfamiliar left in its place. A sentiment he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/he-felt-something-move-in-his-chest-as-though-an-organ-had-been/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [Still in my coat and hat, I sank onto the stair to read the letter. (I never read without making sure I am in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/still-in-my-coat-and-hat-i-sank-onto-the-stair-to-read-the-letter-i/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [I still believe in stories. I still forget myself when I am in the middle of a good book. Books are for me, it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/i-still-believe-in-stories-i-still-forget-myself-when-i-am-in-the/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

> [Of course I loved books more than people. Of course I valued "Jane Eyre" over the anonymous stranger...Of course all of Shakespeare was worth…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/of-course-i-loved-books-more-than-people-of-course-i-valued-jane-eyre/)

[Diane Setterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-setterfield/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "ItemList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing-autobiographical/diane-setterfield/#itemlist",
            "name": "2 Writing Autobiographical Quotes By Diane Setterfield",
            "numberOfItems": 2,
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "Readers are fools. They believe all writing is autobiographical. And so it is, but not in the way they think. The writer's life needs time to rot away before it can be used to nourish a work of fiction. it must be allowed to decay.",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Diane Setterfield"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/readers-are-fools-they-believe-all-writing-is-autobiographical-and-so/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f87/diane-setterfield-1008_believe_readers-are-fools-they-believe-all-writi_723988.png",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f87/diane-setterfield-1008_believe_readers-are-fools-they-believe-all-writi_723988.png",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f87/diane-setterfield-1008_believe_readers-are-fools-they-believe-all-writi_723988.png",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Readers are fools. They believe all writing is autobiographical. And so it is, but not in the way they…” — Diane Setterfield",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“Readers,\" continued Miss Winter, \"are fools. They believe all writing is autobiographical. And so it is, but not in the way they think. The writer's life needs time to rot away before it can be used to nourish a work of fiction. It must be allowed to decay. That's why I couldn't have journalists and biographers rummaging around in my past, retrieving bits and pieces of it, preserving it in their words. To write my books, I needed my past left in peace, for time to do its work.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Diane Setterfield"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-setterfield/readers-continued-miss-winter-are-fools-they-believe-all-writing-is/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/636/diane-setterfield-1008_bits-and-pieces_readers-continued-miss-winter-are-fools_2157570.png",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/636/diane-setterfield-1008_bits-and-pieces_readers-continued-miss-winter-are-fools_2157570.png",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/636/diane-setterfield-1008_bits-and-pieces_readers-continued-miss-winter-are-fools_2157570.png",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Readers,\" continued Miss Winter, \"are fools. They believe all writing is autobiographical. And so it is, but…” — Diane Setterfield",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "CollectionPage",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing-autobiographical/diane-setterfield/#webpage",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing-autobiographical/diane-setterfield/",
            "name": "Writing Autobiographical Quotes by Diane Setterfield",
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "mainEntity": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing-autobiographical/diane-setterfield/#itemlist"
            },
            "primaryImageOfPage": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f87/diane-setterfield-1008_believe_readers-are-fools-they-believe-all-writi_723988.png"
            },
            "description": "2 Writing Autobiographical quotes by Diane Setterfield. Plus more from Diane Setterfield and more Writing Autobiographical sayings from other authors.",
            "breadcrumb": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing-autobiographical/diane-setterfield/#breadcrumb"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing-autobiographical/diane-setterfield/#breadcrumb",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Topics",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "Writing Autobiographical",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing-autobiographical/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 5,
                    "name": "Diane Setterfield",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing-autobiographical/diane-setterfield/"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```
