Home / Quotes / Quote by Maggie O'Farrell

Quote by Maggie O'Farrell

“For a while I used to listen to those whispers about babies costing you books, and Cyril Connolly's loathsome quote that "There is no more somber enemy of good art than the pram in the hall." But it's rubbish. Absolute rubbish. A huge amount of your work is done when you're not at your desk. Knotty problems that you need your unconscious to solve. So it can be helpful to walk away and focus on other things and it can be helpful to be a bit harassed in your daily life, to be hungry for time to write.”

Quote by Maggie O'Farrell

Author

Maggie O'Farrell

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. more

You May Also Like

“I think it was Rose Macaulay who said, "A house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived."”

Thinking House Rose

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“I have no control, of course, over how I'm marketed. It's a sad thing, though, that so many people perceive literature to be gendered. The idea that some subjects are male and some are female is just preposterous to me. It's reductive and nonsensical, to separate writers and subjects and plots along gender lines. It's meaningless.”

People Literature Female Gender Perceive Meaningless Nonsensical

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“My husband, William Sutcliffe, the writer, is my first reader and in many ways my most important. That initial reading of the manuscript is crucial and irreplaceable and you want them to approach it as someone in a bookshop might, not knowing much about it. So I've got into this pattern of not telling Will anything about the book I'm working on. He often knows nothing about the book I'm working on at all until I give him the whole manuscript and ask him to read it. The book I'm working on at the moment he knows nothing about. No one does.”

Giving Important Book Moments Reading Husband My Husband Irreplaceable

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“You need a lot of energy to get a novel finished. You need an ability to ignore everyone around you. It's why I don't read my reviews any more. I know a lot of people say that, but I really don't read them.”

People Energy Ability Novel

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“I don't want to be influenced as to what I write in the next book, to hear those voices in my head when I'm writing. The idea of second-guessing your reader is dangerous, trying to please some notional reader looking over your shoulder, instead of just yourself.”

Writing Trying Book Dangerous Over You

Author:Maggie O'Farrell

“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