All Rose Tremain Quotes
- Learn from cinema. Be economic with descriptions. Sort out the telling detail from the lifeless one. Write dialogue that people would actually speak. Actually Speak
- Pace is crucial. Fine writing isn't enough. Writing students can be great at producing a single page of well-crafted prose; what they sometimes lack is… Ability
- The process of rewriting is enjoyable, because you're not in that existential panic when you don't have a novel at all. All
- Forget the boring old dictum, 'Write about what you know.' Instead, seek out an unknown yet knowable area of experience that's going to enhance your… Area
- At the moment, I'm toying with a new idea for a book, but fully engaged with writing screenplays, so the book idea - which needs… Barely
- The unfolding of a story is both as exciting and as difficult for each and every novel I've written, regardless of time and place. Both
- I can inhabit any character in a way that is difficult to do successfully in a contemporary novel. Any
- Perhaps, all writers walk such a line. In general - as we all do in our dreams - I believe I put something of myself… All
- A novel usually takes me two years. A year to research and plan and dream. Then a year to write. Dream
- When an idea comes, spend silent time with it. Remember Keats's idea of Negative Capability and Kipling's advice to "drift, wait, and obey." Along with… Advice
- Never be satisfied with a first draft. In fact, never be satisfied with your own stuff at all, until you're certain it's as good as… All
- So history is fertile territory for me and I think I could feel happy with any period of history, provided I had the right sources… Any
- When you've finished a piece of work you've had a kind of love affair with it. Affair
- There is something about the unexpected that moves us. As if the whole of existence is paid for in some way, except for that one… Except
- Life is not a dress rehearsal. Dress
- And she did not want him to think her quite mad, only a little unique, only containing within her just that measure of the unexpected… Containing
- In the planning stage of a book, don't plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it. All
- Perhaps, more importantly, I think that most human beings realise only a fraction of the true potential of their minds, so the spiritual or mystical,… Always Drawn
- Life should be embraced like a lover. Embraced
- I have likened writing a novel to going on a journey, with some notion of the destination I will arrive at, but not the whole… Along
- Any setting can potentially acquire this vividness. It slowly arrives during the period of research, until it is as immediate to me as my own… Acquire
- I think I'm drawn to writing about something which feels intense and important. Drawn
- I'm always amazed by writers who tell me they plan everything at the beginning. I feel their writing days must be very bland. Always Amazed
- I'm not very interested in charting a day-to-day familiar reality. I'm always looking for territory in which to explore the BIG subjects, the life-or-death stories. Always Looking