Quotes from Sarah Waters

I knew I'd always be a second-rate academic, and I thought, 'Well, I'd rather be a second-rate novelist or even a third-rate one'.

I love research. Sometimes I think writing novels is just an excuse to allow myself this leisurely time of getting to know a period and reading its books and watching its films. I see it as a real treat.

My nan was a nursery maid. Most people weren't in big houses. They were maids of all work.

My story is the story of many postwar British families. Upward mobility. A council house and then new affluence.

Novels are nothing but evolution, but there does come a point when that stops, and the story is sealed within the pages of the book. That doesn't happen with a play. Even performances are different every night.

I used to write at home, but it didn't ever occur to me to be a writer.

Sometimes I think I'd be perfectly happy to go on rewriting 'Tipping the Velvet' forever because it was so much fun.

Even ashes are a part of your freedom.