Monica Ali Quotes

22 quotes in 424 categories

• I was always an outsider, always standing outside, observing and trying to figure things out. Which is exactly what you need to do as a…
• Writing is a deeply immersive experience. When the words are flying, the house could be burgled and I wouldn’t notice. I have a low boredom…
• If the culture is so all pervasive that you can’t think outside of it, how are you making genuine choices?
• A new car is not going to change your life.
• I always try to create conflict and drama in my books; it's the engine of the novel.
• I don't want to get hung up on what 'people,' that nebulous mass, think about me. That's the way to unhappiness, I think.
• I rarely get a moment to myself, but I love the way that my agenda is dictated by the children, not my work.
• I wish I got a lie-in on Saturday mornings but I never do.
• I'm very eclectic in my music tastes - anything from Nina Simone to Beethoven to Talvin Singh.
• People always want to identify a writer with their protagonist.
• I get really excited if I think I'm going to introduce somebody to a writer they haven't found before and I think they'll love. My…
• I guess there's a sort of cycle with writing books. There's all the researching and then the imagining and writing - which is the real…
• I like Beryl Bainbridge a great deal, and she is a writer who absolutely demands to be read a second, third, and fourth time. I…
• I started writing 'Brick Lane' when my children were two years and five months old. We were on holiday in the north of England when…
• Kids are naturally inventive and curious and creative, but most adults have had that beaten out of them. Writing is a form of play; you…
• Some writers are more natural public performers than others; personally I find it quite strange giving interviews. But everyone has parts of their job that…
• You know how if you're born in a certain situation you always expect your life to run on a steady trajectory? I've never really had…
• Sometimes I look back and I am shocked. Everyday of my life I have prepared for success, worked for it, waited for it, and you…
• She touched his hand for the last time. "Oh, Karim, that we have already done. But always there was a problem between us. How can…
• The thing about getting older is that you don't need everything to be possible any more, you just need things to be certain.

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