A biography for Emma Donoghuehasn’t been written yet.
“And why must it always be presumed that a woman's views are based on personal considerations?”
“It came to Mary now that her mother had been right, after all; Mary had been born for this. In sixteen years she'd shot along the shortest route she could find between life and death, as the crow flew.”
“Some writers can produce marvelous plots without planning it out, but I can't. In particular I need to know the structure of a novel: what's going to happen in each chapter and each scene.”
“The way to my heart is through Belgian milk chocolate.”
“Everybody's damaged by something.”
“Identity politics are wearisome; you don't want to go on speaking for any one group as a writer.”
“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.”
“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.”
“In the yard of the inn, Daffy Cadwaladyr introduced himself. "Short for Davyd," he said pleasantly.The Londoner looked as if she'd never heard a sillier name in her life.”
“You know, plenty of people headed off to Canada or America on the basis of government information, propaganda campaigns. Often you'd go off with a brochure in hand and you'd turn up and it wouldn't be like that at all.”
“I would say I have sort of a natural gift for character, and following one person's point of view at a time, and dialogue, but I'm not naturally good at strong plot.”