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You're meant to have an unhappy childhood to be a writer, but there's a lot to be said for a very happy one that just let's you get on with it.

Emma Donoghue

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Emma Donoghue
Age: 55
Born: 1969
Born: October 24
Literary Historian
Novelist
Playwright
Screenwriter
Writer
Dublin city
Unhappy
Meant
Childhood
Writer
Happy

More quotes by Emma Donoghue

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I'm really aware that in fiction, women are pretty much equal. There's a lot of very successful women novelists. Not so much [for women writers working] in film.
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So much as I enjoy big novels of epic sweep, I often find, say, if they follow several generations, by the third generation, I'm not caring about the people anymore.
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I think I know what it's like to have a family that the outside world sees as peculiar or lacking.
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I'm named after Jane Austen's Emma, and I've always been able to relate to her. She's strong, confident but quite tactless.
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Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.
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Sometimes you must shed your skin to save it.
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People move around so much in the world, things get lost.
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The paradox of publicity is that even as we do it, we know it's killing off the chance of another reader happening across our book in the ideal state of innocence.
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Maybe I’m a human, but I’m a me-and-Ma as well.
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I thought one way to try to hold on to the power was to write the script myself. That way, I could say to filmmakers, I'm not asking you to hire me unseen. I'm just saying, 'Here's my script. Can we work together?' So that worked out well.
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I must say, in the case of Room, both the book and the film, I don't think being a lesbian author held me back at all.
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Kissing a witch is a perilous business. Everybody knows it's ten times as dangerous as letting her touch your hand, or cut your hair, or steal your shoes. What simpler way is there than a kiss to give power a way into your heart?
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At the door, there was one of those moment when two people realize that they like each other more than they know each other. This is nicer than the opposite situation, but more awkward. You try to remember the protocol for touching. You hate to gush, or presume to much, yet you are unwilling to let the moment pass without without some gesture
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I'm really not one of these procrastinators who cleans the house in order to put off writing, but life gets in the way.
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You cannot predict literary success the only way you can possibly aim for it is to do your thing and do it well.
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Everyone's got a different story.
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When I was a little kid I thought like a little kid, but now I'm five I know everything
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Goodbye, Room. I wave up at Skylight. Say goodbye, I tell Ma. Goodbye, Room. Ma says it but on mute. I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened. Then we go out the door.
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When people write to me with stories, they are never ones that work for me. There's something mysterious about which ones catch you.
Emma Donoghue
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I guess the feminism in Room springs to mind most.
Emma Donoghue