Pat Barker
Pat Barker
Patricia Mary W. "Pat" Barker CBE, FRSL is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres on themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and plainspoken. In 2012, The Observer named the Regeneration Trilogy as one of "The 10 best historical novels"...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth8 May 1943
area became changed characters facial finished interested left life mind portraits sequel soldiers unresolved
I wasn't thinking of a sequel when I finished 'Life Class.' What changed my mind was the perception that the characters had a lot of life left in them, a lot of unresolved conflicts, and also I became interested in the Tonks pastel portraits of facially disfigured soldiers and in the whole area of facial reconstruction.
anyway detachment ideal identity novelists quite relationship short stopping total
That balance between involvement and detachment is what novelists do. It's the ideal relationship between a novelist and a character, I think, total involvement and identity and empathy, stopping short of being autobiographical - in my case, anyway - but also quite detached.
slovenly
When I'm writing the first draft, I'm writing in a very slovenly way: anything to get the outline of the story on paper.
author characters
What I hate in fiction is when the author knows better than the characters what they should do.
shapes definitions persons
Another person's life, observed from the outside, always has a shape and definition that one's own life lacks.
world done half
Half the world's work is done by hopeless neurotics.
christian thinking awkward
I don't think it's possible to c-call yourself a C-Christian and... and j-just leave out the awkward bits.' -Wilfred Owen
world duty
Looking straight at the world is part of your duty as a writer.
young allegiance deserve
A society that devours its own young deserves no automatic or unquestioning allegiance.
murder killing
Murder is only killing in the wrong place.