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Quote by Jeanette Winterson

“I think of myself in a continuum as a woman. Two hundred years ago, it would have been very difficult for me to write at all.”

Quote by Jeanette Winterson

Author

Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson is a renowned British author known for her distinctive literary style and profound social commentary. Her works span a wide range of themes, including novels, essays, and poetry. Winterson's novel 'Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit' is a story about growth, faith, and sexuality that has received widespread acclaim. more

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“I don't see myself as some kind of lone figure standing out there and doing my work in solitary splendour, but as part of the human condition and part of the continuum of writers.”

Humans Kind Conditions Figures Standing Human Condition Solitary Standing Out Lone Continuum Splendour

Author:Jeanette Winterson

“A character has a distinctive voice - you should be able to hear them in your head and conduct a conversation with them while you're out walking. If the answers surprise you, you know it's the character speaking and not you.”

Ifs Knows Should Character Able Voice Answers Walking Conversation Surprise Distinctive

Author:Jeanette Winterson

“I need to be able to hear what is being said to me by the voices I create. Just on the other side of creativity is the nuthouse - and I often notice people looking at me strangely when I am talking out loud, but there is no other way.”

People Way Needs Said Able Sides Voice Talking Creativity Loud

Author:Jeanette Winterson

“It is important not to force a character into something. Fiction writers can be too controlling - usually that's a terror of our own unconscious processes.”

Important Character Force Process Fiction Terror Unconscious Fiction Writers

Author:Jeanette Winterson

“Great control and great discipline are necessary when you reach your own editing stage of the book, but in the early stages you have to be prepared to let anything happen and to get it wrong or go off track. The development of a character is not smooth or simple - it is as tricky as meeting someone new whom you would like to know better.”

Knows Book Character Happens Simple Stage Development Discipline Meetings Prepared Track Things Happen Smooth Editing Be Prepared Tricky Meeting Someone

Author:Jeanette Winterson

“Each book is a different staging post on the writer's journey, and each book stands by itself, regardless of the writer's relationship to it.”

Book Different Journey Posts Staging

Author:Jeanette Winterson

“We shall all die, and our lives will be irrelevant then. If we make anything that lasts, it outlives us, and it outlives its personal moment. All of my work is deep-dug from me, and every book has to stand or fall without me.”

Ifs Book Moments Lasts Dies Fall Our Lives Irrelevant

Author:Jeanette Winterson

“It's great to win a few prizes early on. It helps a writer to get noticed and to get some sales. It can also be a pain in the arse because it gets in the way of the quiet, contemplative time every writer needs, but which is particularly important when you are a new writer finding your own voice, and pursuing the things that interest you.”

Way Needs Important Helping Pain Winning Voice Interest Quiet Findings Prize Contemplative Arses

Author:Jeanette Winterson

“Creative work is incredibly difficult, and that is where the tests lie. Ordinary professionalism and twenty years' experience can accomplish a lot, but it can't access the hidden places. That still needs what it always needs - a condition of complete simplicity, costing not less than everything.”

Needs Years Stills Lying Difficult Creative Conditions Ordinary Tests Twenties Simplicity Accomplish Access Professionalism Creative Work

Author:Jeanette Winterson

“When we learn to read, it's a real product of civilization and a civilized society. It affects your brain. It affects the way you think, and it gives you that capacity for self-reflection that you simply do not have without the agency of books.”

Thinking Way Giving Book Real Self Brain Products Civilization Reflection Capacity Agency Civilized Self Reflection Civilized Society

Author:Jeanette Winterson