Lisa Jewell

“Ever since 'Single White Female,' the 1990 novel which was turned into a supremely scary film, the idea of a seemingly normal woman who will stop at nothing to get what she wants has become an abiding literary trope.”

“I knew I wasn't the sort of person who could do a full-time job and write in the evening and at weekends.”

“Every brilliant book I read is an influence and an inspiration. As is every brilliant movie I watch and every brilliant box set.”

“There was no beginning, middle and end to destiny, it wasn't neat and manageable. It was random and scary and if it wanted to it would.”

“My mother's childhood was complex, disjointed, and disturbing. As children, we would gather round and ask her to tell us again and again The Story of Her Childhood. It was Grimmsian, Andersenesque: a classic fairy tale replete with goodies and baddies.”

“Sometimes you need to be shaken out of a situation.”

“Flowers would be wasted on me. I don't like valentines. I don't need gifts. I'm a pragmatic romantic.”

“I changed my mind about being a famous pop star when I realised that it meant I'd never be able to get on the Tube again.”

“In 1995, I was 27, and I completely got caught up in Blur and Oasis and the fashion of the time.”

“My mother was born on February 8, 1944, in Lucknow, India. Her father, Albert, was half-Indian and half-Portuguese.”

“I was made redundant from a job as a PA in a shirt-making company in 1996. I was devastated. I had been there for three years, and it was a job I really liked.”

“I was brought up in the same house I was born in, and I lived there until I left home as an adult. I also went to a Catholic school, which was full of Irish girls whose parents never split up, so everyone I knew had these big family set-ups.”

“I tried to write about my first marriage in a fictional version but got two pages into it and realised it was too personal. Then I came up with an old-fashioned love triangle, which became the plot for 'Ralph's Party.'”

“I don't think my first book was chick lit.”

“It wasn't until I was 23 and got married to a guy who was really bookish that I got completely hooked on reading and writing again. He had so many paperbacks, I didn't have to buy a book for four and a half years.”

“I always wanted to write psychological thrillers.”

“you are the only woman I have ever met who I would want to be in a little house with, do you see? Other women make me want to get on boats and run away. You, you make me want to stay somewhere, so that I can see your face everyday. So that I can hold you everyday and watch you grow older. You make me want to be an adult man. You make me want to settle down.”

“There's a weird contrast between my usual daily routine and then my book coming out. It's like someone's just suddenly opened the curtains in a dark room, and everyone's looking at you.”

“Everyone thinks they've got a book inside them.”

“I married someone I didn't love. I was too polite to say no.”