Quotes from Stef Penney

I definitely do feel a pull toward people and places that are far from my own life.

Clearly the secret of happiness...is a variation on the general principle of banging your head against a wall, and then stopping.

it just goes to show you can't leave anything behind. You bring it all with you, whether you want to or not.

I despise this weakness in myself--this endless one-sided conversation that takes the place of action...

Tomorrow is always a better day to be an idiot.

He smiled to show he meant no offense, but Scott takes offense like it is going out of style, and bristled.

He thought of the next Saturday. [...] He thought of the picnic by the dipping pool on the river, where oaks and willows dappled the sun on water the color of tea; and girls in light summer dresses would sit in pools of pale cotton. And he knew he would not go.

She said she was sorry, which was kind but unnecessary, I said I was sorry too. We were both sorry and understanding

Le resulta agotador estar en compañía de personas para las que una sonrisa espontánia es señal de infantil debilidad.

I can't believe the phone has its own room!

I love research, and in fact it's liberating because you have to create your own world. No one can say "I've just got back from the 1860s, and you got it wrong." Anyway, it's fiction.

Initially I only decided to try and write a novel because I wasn't getting enough screenwriting work. It wasn't a long-held ambition, and certainly the idea came first.

Because I work quite slowly, I have to keep myself interested over a long research and writing period. So I can't see myself writing about modern middle-class Londoners anytime soon.