24 Quotes by Jennifer Haigh

I was raised in a Catholic family, spent twelve years in parochial schools, and had extremely fond memories of my interactions with Catholic clergy.

Growing up, I didn't know anybody who didn't have a miner in the family. Both of my grandfathers were miners.

William Faulkner, Muriel Spark, Richard Yates, William Styron, James Salter, Alice Munro. They're very different writers, and I admire them for different reasons. The common thread, I guess, is that they remind me what's possible, why I wanted to write fiction in the first place.

I spent some time, six months or so, ruminating about the characters before I sat down to write 'Faith'.

I've always felt that writing can be learned but not really taught. The best thing somebody can do for you is to put the right book in your hands at the right time. I grew up in a family where the right book was always being put in my hands.

As a young writer, I learned a lot about grammatical structure from reading plays, from performing the plays. I think that was a wonderful apprenticeship.

'Baker Towers' is the book I've always known I would write, but it wasn't an easy book to do.

I have written my whole life. I remember writing as a small child.

Writing fiction, like reading fiction, is a practice in empathy.