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"I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter."
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"In the middle section of the book Mirabelle breaks into not one, but two houses near Belgravia Books. I had fun scoping these out - checking which windows looked least secure and figuring out how to scale the mews houses to the rear to get her inside. A man came out at one point, 'What are you doing?' he questioned me. 'The thing is, I'm writing a book,' I started with a smile. He waved me off, his hand as wide as a tennis racket. 'Everyone is writing a book, my dear,' he said. Between you and I, it's his house that MIrabelle ends up breaking into."
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Personal Development
"I write because, as wonderful as life is - and it is truly wonderful - it isn't enough. It does not, for example, contain dragons. I find this unsatisfactory. So I read. And I write."
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Personal Development
"After each of his books, the writer, for a while, feels once again that he can now die happy."
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Personal Development
"When you put down the good things you ought to have done and leave out the bad things you did do - well that's memoirs."
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Personal Development
"In writing, you must kill all your darlings."
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Personal Development
"A writer paradoxically seeks the truth and tells lies every step of the way. It's a lie if you make something up. But you make it up in the name of the truth, and then you give your heart to expressing it clearly."
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Personal Development
"You spill a lot of beans in historical fiction. Crime fiction is about spilling no beans at all. You spill the least beans you possibly can. So because I had already written historical fiction before I was really good at the spilling beans section, but the new skill I had to learn when I was writing Brighton Belle was difficult. I had to avoid the equivalent of shouting, "this character's a murderer! Look who did it!."
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Personal Development
"Don't say it was delightful; make us say delightful when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers Please will you do the job for me."
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Personal Development
"We do not write because we want to, we write because we have to."
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Personal Development
"The best stories are like the best burgers: big, juicy, and messy."
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"Russia, France, Germany and China. They revere their writers. America is still a frontier country that almost shudders at the idea of creative expression."
Creativity
"I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains."
Discipline
"The really great writers are people like Emily Bronte who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination."
Experience
"It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid."
Courage
"I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter."
Writing
"I was a Navy officer writing about Navy problems and I simply stole this lovely Army nurse and popped her into a Navy uniform, where she has done very well for herself."
Army
"I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions."
Love
"The arrogance of the artist is a very profound thing, and it fortifies you."
Confidence
"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home."
Home
"They were a group of two dozen nurses completely surrounded by 100,000 unattached American men."
Man
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