Diane Setterfield
Diane Setterfield
Diane Setterfieldis a British author whose 2006 debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale, became a New York Times No. 1 best-seller. It is written in the Gothic tradition, with echoes of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Her debut novel was turned into a television film...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth22 August 1964
exploring led literary writers
My liking for Scandinavian crime fiction led me into exploring literary writers from the same countries.
diary hers kept since
I have kept a reading diary since I was 18. I am jealous of my friend who has kept hers since she was ten.
fascinated lives nieces notice people selves stories
I see people as haunted by the selves they don't know... I don't have children, but I have nieces and nephews, and one thing I notice is how fascinated they are by stories of their lives before they can remember.
believed gave life necessary settled several since
For several decades, I believed it was necessary to be extraordinary if you wanted to write, and since I wasn't, I gave up my ambition and settled down to a life of reading.
narrow respect serious trash
Excessively narrow reading is unhelpful, certainly. Reading only Serious Literature is no better than reading only trash in this respect.
garden good ideas ladder spend time wish
I am always happy up a ladder with a paintbrush in my hand. And I wish I had more time to spend in the garden - not least because I get good ideas for writing when I'm out there.
abandoning addictive consciousness ghost haunting influenced losing pleasure worlds
The addictive pleasure of abandoning yourself to a book, of losing consciousness of your worries, your body, and your surroundings, to become a ghost haunting other worlds has influenced me in many ways.
books heart home knew later life man says serious visited
My mother says that after I first visited the home of the man I later married, she knew it was serious when I told her, 'Mum, he has more books than me!' So, books are at the very heart of my life.
easy longest sounds took trust
You have to relax, write what you write. It sounds easy but it's really, really hard. One of the things it took me longest to learn was to trust the writing process.
moving writing blood
There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.
reading joy stage
I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy
reality
I don't pretend reality is the same for everyone.
stories cases disguise
A story so cherished it has to be dressed in casualness to disguise its significance in case the listener turned out to be unsympathetic.
way
For me to see is to read. It has always been that way.