Quotes from Jojo Moyes

Writers divide fairly cleanly into those who only work through what they hear and those who are more visual. I am the latter, where I lie down on my office floor and play scenes through my head to - cinematically, several times with different elements - to see what works. I can't write a scene until I can see it.

I have read books that are so cliched and lazy, my eyes have bled. But I also have read books marketed under the chick-lit umbrella that are so honest, clever and gritty that I've wanted to give up writing and paint walls instead.

I just... want to be a man who has been to a concert with a girl in a red dress. Just for a few minutes more.

It's complicated.' 'So's quantitative easing. But I still get that it means printing money.

But just as nature abhors a vacuum -- so does the human heart.

We are all part of some great cycle, some pattern that it was only God's purpose to understand.

I chose to believe that God, a benign God, would understand our sufferings and forgive us our trespasses.

Don't set pen to paper until you know your main characters inside out. Create files detailing their appearances, likes, dislikes, and personal background. You may not use all the information, but it is a crucial step in planning your story.

You only get one life. It's actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.

When you put someone down all the time, eventually they stop listening to the sensible stuff.

My characters make incomprehensible decisions until you stand in their shoes. Then it makes more sense. Life is very rarely black and white, and most people are trying to do their best. I try not to judge.

My Writers Guild of America card is one of my proudest possessions. I was given it after being invited to write the script for a film of my last novel, 'Me Before You,' which is being made by MGM. Whenever I look at it, I think, 'I'm a Hollywood writer!'

I have always written. I was one of those kids who would always fill exercise books with girls and telepathic ponies.

I realized I was afraid of living without him. How is it you have the right to destroy my life, I wanted to demand of him, but I'm not allowed a say in yours? But I had promised.

I wrote three books before I got one published. Most writers do. Have faith, and know that with each work you are getting better.

I've always been a focused person who knows how to get what I want.

There are normal hours, and then there are invalid hours, where time stalls and slips, where life---real life---seems to exist at one remove.

We seem to live in an age where we are quietly appalled by the idea of appetites, whether they be for sex, food or diamonds.

My go-to winter recipe is beef and butternut squash stew, cooked in the slow oven all day.

If the characters are compelling, readers will follow anywhere.

We want a macho high-earner - with the sensitivity of Gok Wan. We want a man with Brad Pitt's six-pack - but one who's prepared to overlook our own muffin top. No wonder most men don't know if they're coming or going.

If chick-lit really is taking a commercial battering, I'd suggest it's because the marketing has been done to death. Covering everything in girlie pink and putting chocolate in the title may once have been a clever Pavlovian device but now makes readers feel a bit sick.

You live. And you throw yourself into everything and try not to think of the bruises.

You only get one life. It's actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.