Hannah Kent

“I prefer a story to a prayer.”

— Hannah Kent

“Of all the names, one is a mistake. One is a nightmare. The stair you miss in the darkness.”

— Hannah Kent

I applied for funding to embark on an overseas field trip in Iceland, and spent six weeks there happily holed up in…

— Hannah Kent

“Those who are not being dragged to their deaths cannot understand how the heart grows hard and sharp, until it is a…

— Hannah Kent

“I might have starved to death. I would be mud-slick, stuffed to the guts with cold and hopelessness, and my body might…

— Hannah Kent

“Illugastadir, the farm by the sea, where the soft air rings with the clang of the smithy, and gulls caw, and seals…

— Hannah Kent

“The thunder kills the unhatched birds in their eggs.’ ‘Peg”

— Hannah Kent

“cradling dead bodies in its cage of burnt beams.”

— Hannah Kent

The treachery of a friend is worse than that of a foe.

— Hannah Kent

I really hate the term 'historical novel' - it reminds me of bodice-rippers. But I'm hooked on research, and I really, really…

— Hannah Kent

“Some folks are born different, Nance. They are born on the outside of things, with skin a little a thinner, eyes a…

— Hannah Kent

“It was not hard to believe a beautiful woman capable of murder, Margret thought.As it says in the sagas, Opt er flago…

— Hannah Kent

My dad would tell me bedtime stories, and he used to always leave them open-ended and finish at a crucial point with…

— Hannah Kent

So lonely I make friends with the ravens that prey on lambs.

— Hannah Kent

You know you're going to have a good day when your morning begins with breakfast in the same room as Carrie Tiffany,…

— Hannah Kent

“Some folks are forced to the edges by their difference. (...) But 'tis at the edges that they find their power.”

— Hannah Kent

“Never be caught staring at someone. They'll think you want something from them.”

— Hannah Kent

“I will hold what I am inside, and keep my hands tight around all the things I have seen and heard, and…

— Hannah Kent

The gloom encroaches upon my mind, and my heart flutters like a bird held fast in a fist.

— Hannah Kent

When I write, I write for myself, and I have high expectations... so I'm just trying to meet those. I'm not going…

— Hannah Kent

“Hvammur, during the trial, they plucked at my words like birds. Dreadful birds, dressed in red with breasts of silver buttons, and…

— Hannah Kent

“I can turn to that day as though it were a page in a book. It’s written so deeply upon my mind…

— Hannah Kent

“In those early visits it was as though we were building something sacred. We'd place words carefully together, piling them upon one…

— Hannah Kent

I had an interest in Scandinavian countries because I'd never seen snow.

— Hannah Kent

I always knew I wanted to be a writer. I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do as a money-making job.

— Hannah Kent