Tanith Lee
If they had said my writing wasn't good enough, fair enough, that's an opinion. But to say it's too complex is to insult the intelligence of the so-called young.Collection: Intelligence
People are always the start for me... animals, when I can get into their heads, gods, supernatural beings, immortals, the dead... these are all people to me.
I think of myself as a storyteller, and that is it.
I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of normal work.
Genre categories are irrelevant. I dislike them, but I do not have the casting vote.
Writing is writing, and stories are stories. Perhaps the only true genres are fiction and non-fiction. And even there, who can be sure?
As a child, my mother told me lots of fairy stories, many her own invention. She, too, tended to reverse the norm.
When I am fascinated by something, I like to play with it.
I like films, or some films, and would be intrigued to see my work on screen.
I like writing about women, weak and strong, pathetic and heroic. I like writing about men, ditto. And all the variants of men and women, beasts and demons.
Writers tell stories better, because they've had more practice, but everyone has a book in them. Yes, that old cliche.
I just love writing. It's magical, it's somewhere else to go, it's somewhere much more dreadful, somewhere much more exciting. Somewhere I feel I belong, possibly more than in the so-called real world.
It's very selfish when I write. I'm not aware, ever, of writing for another person; I'm not even really aware of writing for myself.
I'm writing what comes into my head, or through me, or from somewhere else, and it is the most extraordinary, exciting thing. I love it, and I'm very greedy, and I really enjoy it!
No one is ever ordinary.
Pirates have always fascinated me.
At an early school, when I was about 5, they asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Everyone said silly things, and I said I wanted to be an actress. So that was what I wanted to be, but what I was, of course, was a writer.
I love writers all across the board, but one who influenced me very directly at the beginning was Mary Renault.
The other writer who had a very important early influence on me when I was about 17 was C.S. Lewis.
I also love Disney, and will defend doing so, because there's so much in those films and I don't care if it's stereotyped.
I've been criticised for writing in too complex a manner for younger people.
I never know where I am going, though. That is part of what makes it so wonderful. And after all, who does?
The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that is cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit.Collection: Lying
Maidens who stay maidens turn into saints. Old women become sorceresses. Tough jobs, both of these.Collection: Jobs
We need the expressive arts, the ancient scribes, the storytellers, the priests.Collection: Art
I will draw you back to me. You shall see. By a chain of stars.Collection: Stars
The soul is a magician. Only living flesh hampers it.Collection: Soul
Flat or round, there has always been hate in the world.Collection: Hate
A rose by any other name Would get the blame For being what it is-- The colour of a kiss, The shadow of a flame. A rose may earn another name, So call it love; So call it love I will, And love is like the sea, Which changes constantly, And yet is still The same.Collection: Kissing
Ecstasy and vulnerability belonged in the same dish. The fear the cup would be snatched away was what gave the wine its savor.Collection: Wine
The so-called Real World. Human misery and sadness. Blind politics and general cruelty.Collection: Real
Madness. I did not get myself born to die. I have better things to do.Collection: Madness
If I ever get to 100, I'd want to be filled with wonder and wild, adolescent, wide-eyed interest in newness. So let's keep the flame burning. Let's stop thinking everyone over 29, or 49, has to be reinforced by concrete.Collection: Thinking
We all have our dreams. May we find them, and God have mercy on us when we do.Collection: Dream
I must suppose that reading wonderful writers may, inadvertently, teach an avid reader a great deal -- not only about life and other matters, but about how to write. Therefore doubtless I have benefited from frequent immersions in the glowing genius of others. It would be nice to think so. (I do actually think so). But to improve my skills will never be the prompting force of my reading -- that's just literary lust.Collection: Nice
Dawn rose from the desert and turned the river to wine.Collection: Wine
If you run away from trouble, it always follows.' Rather my impression, too. Though that never stopped me trying.Collection: Running
Oh, love. Love is best of all. There is no such total element, not even pain. Who has ever loved, knows this. I need not say more.Collection: Pain
Writing is writing, and stories are stories. Perhaps the only true genres are fiction and nonfiction. And even there, who can be sure?Collection: Writing
It's lovely. I hate it.Collection: Hate
I held out my book. It was precious to me, as were all the things I'd written; even where I despised their inadequacy there was not one I would disown. Each tore its way from my entrails. Each had shortened my life, killed me with its own special little death.Collection: Book
Danger and anger are everywhere. Love is the rarity, the gem buried in the core of the mine, the outpost of God.Collection: Love Is
Never be afraid of a cliché, if it expresses what you wish to say.Collection: Wish
No one more cynical than an idealist.Collection: Cynical
In the greater part of humankind there resides an instinct for survival. It is this which can clutch at straws and effect a rescue from them. It is this which can, now and then, outwit fate.Collection: Fate
Hope is a punishable offense. The verdict is always death; one more death of the heart.Collection: Hope
You should visit before you pass judgment on a place.Collection: Judgment
We need the expressive arts, the ancient scribes, the storytellers, the priests. And that's where I put myself: as a storyteller. Not necessarily a high priestess, but certainly the storyteller. And I would love to be the storyteller of the tribe.Collection: Art
Tales of heroes end in bliss.Collection: Hero
I was born in North London in 1947. I didn't learn to read until I was almost 8-partly bad schooling, and partly I suspect slight dyslexic problems. My father, driven mad by this, taught me to read. At 9 I began writing.Collection: Father