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Maggie O'Farrell

Maggie O'Farrell Quotes

Author

Maggie O'Farrell is an Irish author born in 1972. Her works are known for their deep character development and emotionally rich storytelling. O'Farrell's writing often focuses on family relationships and women's experiences, frequently exploring themes of love, marriage, and identity.

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All Writing People Thinking Book Novel Reading Trying Happens Ireland Problem

Famous Maggie O'Farrell Quotes

“Always, at the end of every book, there are things you will be unsatisfied with, and still more things that later on you will realize were not right. But mistakes are part of what a book is. That itchy, dissatisfied feeling at the end of a novel is useful. It's what keeps you writing and gets you writing the next one. It's what keeps you learning.”

Writing Book Feelings Realizing Mistake Novel Dissatisfied Unsatisfied

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“You learn so much with each book, but it's what you teach yourself by writing your own books and by reading good books written by other people - that's the key. You don't want to worry too much about other people's responses to your work, not during the writing and not after. You just need to read and write, and keep going.”

People Writing Book Reading Teach Worry Response Keep Going Good Book

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“In the course of writing a book I'll produce loads of pieces of paper to help the novel itself. Diagrams, charts, family trees. And at the end of each book I'll pack it all away. It takes me a while to do it - it's like a relationship that way; there's a period of letting - go, of grief, in a way - but then I box it up, label it, and put it in the attic.”

Writing Book Helping Grief Novel Tree Writing A Book

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“I try not to be too precious about my writing, and I try to be willing to walk away from it for a few hours when something's not working, to let things percolate a bit. I try not to hide myself away from life too much, because I think that's a risky thing for a writer to do.”

Thinking Writing Trying Hours

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“The Chilean novelist Isabel Allende says there's no such thing as writer's block, you just need to live a bit more. I try to bear that in mind.”

Trying Mind Block

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“Two and a half thousand left-handed people are killed every year using things made for right-handed people.”

People Years Made Two Left Half Thousand Left Handed

Book:The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

Source: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

“We are all, Esme decides, just vessels through which identities pass: we are lent features, gestures, habits, then we hand them on. Nothing is our own. We begin in the world as anagrams of our antecedents.”

World Hands Identity Habit Features Gestures Vessel Anagrams

Book:The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

Source: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

“It is a terrible thing to want something you cannot have. It takes you over. I couldn't think straight because of it. There was no one else, I realized, whom I could possibly tell.”

Thinking Want Terrible I Realized Want Something Terrible Things

Book:The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

Source: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

“She wanted to say, no. She wanted to say, I have a son, there is a child, this cannot happen. Because you know that no one will ever love them like you do. You know that no one will look after them like you do. You know that it's an impossibility, it's unthinkable that you could be taken away, that you will have to leave them behind.”

Knows Looks Children Happens Wanted Behinds Taken Son Like You Do You Know Impossibility Unthinkable

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“Why isn't life better designed so it warns you when terrible things are about to happen?”

Happens Terrible Terrible Things

Book:After You'd Gone

Source: After You'd Gone

“I don't believe in fate. I don't believe in cushioning your insecurities with a system of belief that tells you 'Don't worry. This may be your life but you're not in control. There is something or someone looking out for you -- it's already organised.' It's all chance and choice, which is far more frightening.”

Believe May Choices Belief Chance Worry Fate Don't Believe Insecurity Frightening Organised

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“What are you supposed to do with all the love you have for somebody if that person is no longer there? What happens to all that leftover love? Do you suppress it? Do you ignore it? Are you supposed to give it to someone else?”

Ifs Giving Persons Happens Love You

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“Listen. The trees in this story are stirring, trembling, readjusting themselves. A breeze is coming in gusts off the sea, and it is almost as if the trees know, in their restlessness, in their head-tossing impatience, that something is about to happen.”

Ifs Knows Stories Happens Tree Sea Breeze Impatience Trembling Stirring Restlessness

Book:The Hand That First Held Mine

Source: The Hand That First Held Mine

“She has spent most of the day reading and is feeling rather out of touch with reality, as if her own life has become insubstantial in the face of the fiction she's been absorbed in.”

Ifs Feelings Reality Faces Reading Fiction

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“Gretta sits herself down at the table. Robert has arranged everything she needs: a plate, a knife, a bowl with a spoon, a pat of butter, a jar of jam. It is in such small acts of kindness that people know they are loved.”

People Knows Needs Kindness Tables Knives Plates Bowls Jam Jars Spoons Acts Of Kindness Small Acts Small Acts Of Kindness

Book:Instructions for a Heatwave

Source: Instructions for a Heatwave

“She liked the way his smile took a long time to arrive and just as long to leave.”

Way Long Long Time His Smile

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

About the Author

Born: 1972
Known for: Author
Quotes: 66

Related Topics

Writing People Thinking Book Novel Reading Trying Happens Ireland Problem

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

HamnetRelated source material

The Vanishing Act of Esme LennoxRelated source material

Instructions for a HeatwaveRelated source material

The Hand That First Held MineRelated source material

This Must Be the PlaceRelated source material

After You'd GoneRelated source material

The Marriage PortraitRelated source material

The Yellow Wall-paperRelated source material

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