For me, writing is such an escape, and I felt very lucky to have this to run away to. Rachel Joyce Read Quote
I’m sure that everything you do contributes to the sort of novel that you write. A lot of actors have an understanding of drama and a good ear for dialogue and also the rhythm of speech. Similarly, my 16 years in radio drama has influenced me. You only have 45 minutes, or 7,000 words, to tell a story, so every scene has to have a point. Rachel Joyce Read Quote
Even if we don’t believe in church or God, we still believe in things that are bigger than ourselves. We need to believe in those things because if we can’t be open to what we don’t know, there’s no hope for any of us. Rachel Joyce Read Quote
This is what I have discovered – and it has been a gift in itself – that books live over and over again in different people’s minds. That I might mean one thing as I write, but a reader’s experiences will take it somewhere else. That is like a conversation, I think. It is a true connecting up. Rachel Joyce Read Quote
My father died in France, and my sisters and I went over with my mum to bring back his body. I remember going to the funeral parlour in France and being given a laminated menu of coffins, and thinking, surely there is an ice cream at the back of here! Rachel Joyce Read Quote
I like writing people from a slightly sharp angle and then throwing more light on them. I think in life we see somebody and make judgments very quickly about who they are and what they are. Or we think people are boring because they appear ordinary. Rachel Joyce Read Quote
I find that very appealing: the blurring of the lines between what’s funny and what’s tragic. And what’s ordinary and what’s not – the big things in the small things. Rachel Joyce Read Quote
We are quick to stick labels on others – especially those who don’t fit in with the norm. ‘Harold Fry’ is about a broken marriage; ‘Perfect’ is about a broken person. They are both about finding kindness where you least expect it. Rachel Joyce Read Quote
I think of myself as a very ordinary person. I like writing about the juxtaposition between people: the beauty of them at times and then the banal, everyday context in which we find ourselves. Rachel Joyce Read Quote
The characters in my stories all have quite loud lives in my head. It’s a relief to get them on the page. Often they come from people I’ve noticed or overheard – but that is only a part of them. It’s only by writing that I discover who these people really are. Rachel Joyce Read Quote
