British culture is very cynical sometimes of overt displays of sentimentality, and I think that becomes almost a suspicion of emotion, or a suspicion of someone making a grand statement. It is always easier to be ironic, or ‘meta’, or coolly postmodern. But I think there is such a thing as authentic sentimentality. Matt Haig Read Quote
If you sell the film rights to your book, it doesn’t mean there will be a film. I have sold the rights to five books and had zero films made. Take the money and be thankful. Matt Haig Read Quote
Creative writing lessons can be very useful, just like music lessons can be useful. To say, as Hanif Kureishi did, that 99.9% of students are talentless is cruel and wrong. I believe that certain writers like to believe they arrived into the world with special, unteachable powers because it is good for the ego. Matt Haig Read Quote
There is certainly no one ‘type’ of writer who deliberately draws on Shakespeare. In fact, there’s a strong argument that everyone writing in the English language is influenced by Shakespeare because, to a considerable degree, he shaped that language. Matt Haig Read Quote
I’d love for mental illness to be seen in the way that other horrible illnesses are. When people get cancer, very few parents will say, ‘Oh I feel so bad for giving you so much unhealthy food over the years.’ Matt Haig Read Quote
To make ‘depression’ synonymous with ‘dangerous’ is as bad as saying ‘Muslim’ is synonymous with ‘terrorist.’ Matt Haig Read Quote
Being a depressive should not imply danger any more than being a man or even a human should. Mental illness isn’t a them/us issue; we are all on the scale somewhere. So we must be very careful to resist ignorance and combat the stigma that leads to dangerous silence. Matt Haig Read Quote
I think we get too hung up on categories. Obviously, the book market has to categorise things, and it makes it easier for a reader to go into a bookshop and choose, but as a writer, it helps to get rid of all of that and imagine you are a storyteller around a campfire. Matt Haig Read Quote
Depression is a horrible, potentially life-threatening illness – but the lives it threatens are almost always those of the people who suffer from it. Matt Haig Read Quote
Teenagers are in some ways the best readers because their imaginations haven’t been narrowed down by boring things like jobs and the realities of money and capitalism. Matt Haig Read Quote
