Chris Cleave
Chris Cleave
Chris Cleaveis a British writer and journalist...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionWriter
school thinking guy
I think, in common with a lot of novelists, I wasn't the most athletic guy at school.
writing character research
I'm always determined that as a novelist I'm going to go out there and research my characters very thoroughly before I start writing.
thinking serious would-be
If I could not smile, I think my situation would be even more serious.
men want trouble
That is the trouble with happiness-all of it is built on top of something that men want.
grief heart mind
There was no quick grief for Andrew because he had been so slowly lost. First from my heart, then from my mind, and only finally from my life.
mean secret dying
We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, 'I survived'.
children sunshine clouds
It was the month of May and there was warm sunshine dripping through the holes between the clouds, like the sky was a broken blue bowl and a child was trying to keep honey in it.
two horror little-bee
I was carrying two cargoes. Yes, one of them was horror, but the other one was hope.
writing talking stories
I could not stop talking because now I had started my story, it wanted to be finished. We cannot choose where to start and stop. Our stories are the tellers of us.
children sick olympics
Looking after a very sick child was the Olympics of parenting.
girl dream country
What is an adventure? That depends on where you are starting from. Little girls in your country, they hide in the gap between the washing machine and the refrigerator and they make believe they are in the jungle, with green snakes and monkeys all around them. Me and my sister, we used to hide in a gap in the jungle, with green snakes and monkeys all around us, and make believe that we had a washing machine and a refrigerator. You live in a world of machines and you dream off things with beating hearts. We dream of machines, because we see where beating hearts have left us.
mean dying doe
A scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.
girl stars mean
On the girl's brown legs there were many small white scars. I was thinking, Do those scars cover the whole of you, like the stars and the moons on your dress? I thought that would be pretty too, and I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.
faces turns
At some point you just have to turn around and face your life head on.