Lisa Jewell
Don't do a hard sell or try to tell the agent that you're going to be a bestseller or the next John Grisham. This goes down very badly. If your work is good, then they are skilled enough to know this within a few pages.
Every time I've written a book, I'm like, 'Oh, it's so different from the last one. Are they going to like it?'
All my main characters have got bits of me, bits of my family, bits of my friends.
There's a weird contrast between my usual daily routine and then my book coming out. It's like someone's just suddenly opened the curtains in a dark room, and everyone's looking at you.
I always wanted to write psychological thrillers.
I would never, for the sake of the story or a twist, have a character do something that they just wouldn't do. I really couldn't. I'd rather miss out on the twist.
That whole idea of chick lit being a thing that you just lump all the commercial female writers into - it went on for years.I'd switch on the radio, and I'd hear, 'Two female authors are here to discuss chick lit - is it dead?' and I'd think, 'Argh, no, not again. Are we seriously still having this conversation?'
There are people out there who would enjoy my books but wouldn't pick them up because they think it's not going to be for them. I find it infuriating.There's a lot more going on in my books than just romance.
Flowers would be wasted on me. I don't like valentines. I don't need gifts. I'm a pragmatic romantic.
I like the fact that my husband and I have been together for a long time and have a warm and colourful history together.
In 1995, I was 27, and I completely got caught up in Blur and Oasis and the fashion of the time.
I was brought up in the same house I was born in, and I lived there until I left home as an adult. I also went to a Catholic school, which was full of Irish girls whose parents never split up, so everyone I knew had these big family set-ups.
The only way you can write about a happy family in a drama is to make them unhappy.
'Ralph's Party' was a romantic comedy, and at the end of it, the two main characters, Ralph and Jen, kiss for the first time and think they're going to be happy together. Then, 10 years later, I wrote a sequel in which they've been together for 10 years and are about to split up.
My publishers find me really challenging, as a lot of the time, I don't even know what I'm going to be writing about until I sit down to do it.
I married someone I didn't love. I was too polite to say no.
I think that not being proactive is a good thing. I like life to unfold on its own.
That's always the way in life: the longer you leave things, the harder they are to do.Collection: Way In Life
It's the people who seem weak who are always suprisingly strong, and the ones who seem strong who are unexpectledly weak.Collection: Strong
I loved her more than she loved me, that was the problem. A basic imbalance. Relationships like that never last, however hard you try. And now she's pregnant and in love with a man who'll never love her the way she loves him. It's a series of vicious circles, and the only way to stop it is to find someone who loves you the same. No power struggle. No insecurities. Just friendship. Because you can never be friends with someone if you love them too much.Collection: Struggle
Freedom came in strange forms and from unexpected directions.Collection: Unexpected
Friends can be a pain. They can be demanding and hard work. But maybe that's because they're the wrong friends. I read a quote once, can't remember who by, but they said that your friends aren't necessarily the people you like best, they're just the people who got there first.Collection: Pain
If destiny could bring two people together, then it could just as easily tear them apart, and, if it could tear two people apart, then it could just as easily bring them back together again. There was no beginning, middle and end to destiny. It wasn't neat and manageable. It was random and scary.Collection: Destiny
They say that your powers of memory are at their peak when you're 26, and it's all downhill after that.Collection: Memories
If you loveach other, whatever happens you can deal with it, you can work it out. Because if there's one thing I've learned, it's that it's really not much fun having an adventure with someone you're not in love with.Collection: Fun