201 Quotes by Diane Setterfield

Do they sense it, these dead writers, when their books are read? Does a pinprick of light appear in their darkness? Is their soul stirred by the feather touch of another mind reading theirs? I do hope so.

As for you, you are alive. But it's not the same as living.

I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy

My liking for Scandinavian crime fiction led me into exploring literary writers from the same countries.

I am always happy up a ladder with a paintbrush in my hand. And I wish I had more time to spend in the garden - not least because I get good ideas for writing when I'm out there.

I have kept a reading diary since I was 18. I am jealous of my friend who has kept hers since she was ten.

For several decades, I believed it was necessary to be extraordinary if you wanted to write, and since I wasn't, I gave up my ambition and settled down to a life of reading.

My mother says that after I first visited the home of the man I later married, she knew it was serious when I told her, 'Mum, he has more books than me!' So, books are at the very heart of my life.

You have to relax, write what you write. It sounds easy but it's really, really hard. One of the things it took me longest to learn was to trust the writing process.