Top 101 Quotes & Sayings by Sara Sheridan - Page 2

History at its best is a gritty, dirty business.

My father could talk about the Romany way of life and its culture. He could talk about freedom and the Scottish spirit. But that was all he could talk about. I was desperate for someone to talk to but there was just nobody there.

There is something particularly fascinating about seeing places you know in a piece of art - be that in a film, or a photograph or painting.

If we don't value the people who inspire us (and money is one mark of that) then what kind of culture are we building?

We can learn so much looking outside our core field of expertise.

It may take a village to raise a baby, but hell! it takes an army to produce a book.

At the end of the day, that's what a family is - a group of different people who accept each other.

Scotland consistently produces world-class writers.

As an historical novelist - there are few jobs more retrospective.

Grabbing readers by the imagination is a writer's job.

Writers need each other.

Researching books gets you into nothing but trouble.

The net has provided a level playing field for criticism and comment - anyone and everyone is entitled to their opinion - and that is one of its greatest strengths.

I'm not sure how much easier it is for a mother to balance her life now - have we simply swapped one set of restrictions for another?

I've always had a keen sense of history. My father was an antiques dealer and he used to bring home boxes full of treasures, and each item always had a tale attached.

I don't choose between my house phone and my mobile. I don't choose between my laptop and my notebook. And I don't intend to choose between my e-reader and my bookshelf.

Writing about the 1950s has given me tremendous respect for my mother's generation.

Aunts offer kids an opportunity to try out ideas that don't chime with their parents and they also demonstrate that people can get on, love each other and live together without necessarily being carbon copies.

I care about a lot of issues. I care about libraries, I care about healthcare, I care about homelessness and unemployment. I care about net neutrality and the steady erosion of our liberties both online and off. I care about the rich/poor divide and the rise of corporate business.

An Aunt is a safe haven for a child. Someone who will keep your secrets and is always on your side.

At length, when I considered it, I realized that the best of my actions were small things. Picking flowers and cooking food for my mother when she had been unwell, spending an afternoon with the children, sending money to my sister or kissing Henry's tiny head as he slept in the nursery before I left. I thought of every detail and afterwards I felt better. Hellfire and brimstone have never appealed to me and I admit I become easily confused thinking of right and wrong. But I do understand kindness.

Something I notice speaking to writers from south of Hadrians Wall is that the culture is different. At base, I think Scotland values its creative industries differently from England.

The sky was a sparkling succession of black diamonds on black velvet made crystal clear by the blackout.

I had loved poetry and the theatre. Now I loved adventure more.

People make interesting assumptions about the profession. The writer is a mysterious figure, wandering lonely as a cloud, fired by inspiration, or perhaps a cocktail or two.

Change occurs slowly. Very often a legal change might take place but the cultural shift required to really accept its spirit lingers in the wings for decades.

The new contract between writers and readers is one I'm prepared to sign up to. I've met some fascinating people at events and online. Down with the isolation of writers I say! And long live Twitter.

To me, reading through old letters and journals is like treasure hunting. Somewhere in those faded, handwritten lines there is a story that has been packed away in a dusty old box for years.

Writers are a product of where we come from but by looking at alternatives to the culture in which we live, we can find ways to change and hopefully improve it.

A word out of place or an interesting choice of vocabulary can spawn a whole character.

Books have a vital place in our culture. They are the source of ideas, of stories that engage and stretch the imagination and most importantly, inspire.

Very often the characters people respond to best have little parts of reality they can relate to.

She wishes her grandmother had not been so protective, and that she understood better what passes between a man and woman. As it is, she simply enjoys the feelings and wonders if they are what lightning is made of, for everything comes back to the weather. Tears like rain. Smiles like the sun. Hair as dry as sand and fear like the dark ocean.

A book is a story, even if it's non-fiction, and once I've read it, I have the story with me inside my head always.

Copywriters, journalists, mainstream authors, ghostwriters, bloggers and advertising creatives have as much right to think of themselves as good writers as academics, poets, or literary novelists.

Writers of novels live in a strange world where what's made up is as important as what's real.

I believe the era of the militant lady is back.

While I'm frustrated at the amount I'm expected to take on in the present, the 1950s woman was frustrated by being excluded - not being allowed to take things on at all.

It is one of the benchmarks of a culture I always think – the page at which it operates. A good way to measure it is to order a taxi and see how irate local people get if it is late.

Sometimes I create a character from a scrap - a mere mention that has been left behind.

Everyone assumes writers spend their time lounging around, writing and occasionally striking a pose whilst having a think.