Quotes from Fiona Barton

I chose to write from different perspectives despite its complexity because it is what I have always done as a journalist.

Garrison Keillor's 'Lake Wobegon' books create a world I can immerse myself in over and over. I love the deadpan humour, the warmth, and the wonderful characters in The Sidetrack Tap. I discovered them when I was about 30, starting with 'Leaving Home' and 'We Are Still Married,' and fell in love with the place and those flat Midwestern vowels.

We may like to pretend otherwise, but we all have thoughts we don't want anyone else to know, things we've done that would change the way people feel about us, or parts of our lives that we would rather forget.

Once you write a book, you hand it over to the readers, and it's their book then. They're so involved. They ask questions about details that I haven't even thought about.

The success of 'The Widow' meant there were expectations for the second book from the first word, and it has created a completely different writing experience. Not to say I haven't enjoyed writing 'The Child,' but I confess there were times when I felt as if I was wrenching it out of my body with bloodied fingernails!

I can't think whether I've actually interviewed the widow of a crime suspect. Obviously, I've interviewed members of the families of people who've been accused of things.

As a reporter, I spent a great deal of time in court. During brief breaks in testimony, I would often look at the spouse, usually the wife, of the accused. I began to wonder how listening to the details of a crime purportedly committed by your spouse would affect that person's view of her husband.

Donna Tartt is a genius.

It's a wonderful experience to be reading a story and think you've got things all figured out, and then suddenly, it all goes upside-down on you.

For most of us, our protective lies or omissions are so insignificant that being found out would be only mildly embarrassing. But for some of us, our secret may threaten to destroy everything. And that is food and drink to a novelist.

When you think about it, psychological thrillers often involve extraordinary events happening to ordinary people.

Since reading 'Sophie's Choice,' I have been haunted by the agonizing idea of choosing between two children.

As a journalist, your words are regularly read by lots of people, but they're not your words: they're someone else's. You're quoting people.

The imagination is such as powerful tool: suggestion is all you need. People fill in gaps.

When you start writing fiction, you have to learn to invent, and it's very hard at the beginning to stop relying on facts and what you've heard.

The secrets of small towns have fascinated writers and readers since the first psychological thriller was penned.

It is a sad truth that apprenticeships fell out of favour in Britain in the Seventies and Eighties, when the manufacturing industries shed jobs and the construction industry went into decline.

The righting of historic wrongs has chimed with something fundamental in me since I was a young reader. I love the forensic skills, the psychological insights, and the sheer bloody-mindedness of various detectives - professional or accidental - inching toward the truth of a long-buried secret.

For me, there has always been the irresistible lure of a secret.

When I first became a journalist, people said, 'Oh, that must be interesting.' They saw it as slightly glamorous, slightly edgy. They wanted to know more.

Yes, there are bad apples, but I do feel journalists do a good job, often in very difficult circumstances.

A lot of people think journalists are criminals, and there are some who haven't helped us. But the media is essential for democratic society.

It's amazing to me that journalists are held in such low esteem.

Mental health is something that I'm very interested in.