I acquired a hunger for fairy tales in the dark days of blackout and blitz in the Second World War. A. S. Byatt Read Quote
Cyclists. I really hate them. I wish they would not be so self-righteous and realise they are a danger to pedestrians. I wish cyclists would not vindictively snap off wing mirrors on cars when they were trying to cross in front of the car at a danger to motorists and pedestrians. A. S. Byatt Read Quote
I know that part of the reason I read Tolkien when I’m ill is that there is an almost total absence of sexuality in his world, which is restful. A. S. Byatt Read Quote
I don’t think it is an easy thing to write and expect to be commercial, even if you are from Venus and a hermaphrodite. A. S. Byatt Read Quote
I always say I write my own novels and the characters don’t take control of me, but in fact, I look at the characters in the early stages and I think, ‘What is he or she like,’ and they slowly come together and they become the person they are. A. S. Byatt Read Quote
The more research you do, the more at ease you are in the world you’re writing about. It doesn’t encumber you, it makes you free. A. S. Byatt Read Quote
I think that most of the children’s writers live in the world that they’ve created, and their children are kind of phantoms that wander around the edge of it in the world, but actually the children’s writers are the children. A. S. Byatt Read Quote
As a little girl, I didn’t like stories about little girls. I liked stories about dragons and beasts and princes and princesses and fear and terror and the Four Musketeers and almost anything other than nice little girls making moral decisions about whether to tell the teacher about what the other little girl did or did not do. A. S. Byatt Read Quote
I like feeling my way into different minds and experiences. It comes naturally and always has. A. S. Byatt Read Quote
