Sarah Hall

“When you are a kid, a wolf is an amazing sight, so sumptuous. I sort of knew these were splendid creatures, that I was not going to find them outside roaming around. It was like a dog, but not a dog. It was incredible, a god!”

“My work is of me; it's not me. I want it to be far more extraordinary than I am.”

“Short stories are often strong meat. Reading them, even listening to them, can be challenging, by which I do not mean hard work, simply that a certain amount of nerve and maturity is required.”

“Revisiting much-loved childhood novels is never easy.”

“Writing, and its theatre of operation, is better than working shifts packing frozen sausages; that's all I need to think about if I'm having difficulties.”

“I have ideas. I hear voices. Words accumulate. It's still an overriding impulse. And I'm self-employed, which means I have to be sensible and motivated about paying the bills.”

“I'm a home-roamer and can't do study or office scenarios.”

“I've always been interested in wolves, since I was a child. There was a wolf enclosure in a wildlife park very close to where I was brought up; they were the main attraction.”

“It's been noted that writing about the production of art is a masquerade or metaphor for writing about writing. This may be true, there are similarities - both the verbal and the visual represent the thing or the concept.”

“I write in the mornings or afternoons - I'm not a night owl and can write for only four or five hours maximum.”

“One of the things I try to do with my writing is try to evoke the spirit of the place. I think these things imprint on the landscape and the culture.”

“For its speculations to be taken seriously, dystopian fiction must be part of a discussion of contemporary society, a projection of ongoing political failures perhaps, or the wringing of present jeopardy for future disaster.”

“I used to dislike bookshops immensely as a child and was won over only later in life.”

“Swimming in the cold and the dark of British autumn is not for the faint-hearted.”

“You always hope you'll surprise somebody with the work. If you write something human and appealing, the perfect reader could be anyone.”

“You are often asked to explain your work, as if the reader isn't able to work it out. And people always try and label you by your work.”

“I'm very aware of modern countryside issues, such as rewilding: how, as science progresses, we begin to understand that a healthy ecosystem is multiform.”

“For about two years, while researching 'The Wolf Border,' I was a complete wolf bore. I would regurgitate everything I was researching, whether people were interested or not.”

“I was a terrible painter - my portraits looked like the evil chimera love-children of Picasso's demoiselles and the BBC test card clown.”

“I think you can tell any human story in a particular place.”