Sara Sheridan

Sometimes I create a character from a scrap - a mere mention that has been left behind.

For a writer it's a genuinely interesting and hopefully profitable era that makes a variety of books available to a variety of readers, extending both what's available and who gets to read it.

At the end of the day, that's what a family is - a group of different people who accept each other.

For a novelist, the gaps in a story are as intriguing as material that still exists.

Most people do a good deal of whatever they do motivated by love. For me, few stories are truly complete without it.

I'm very aware we are the first generation ever to have such incredible opportunities to express ourselves publicly to a worldwide audience.

I believe that being able to communicate directly with readers is a boon. I certainly enjoy it as much as they do.

I've found myself moved by letters and diaries in archives as well as trashy, summer blockbusters. It's possible to make a connection with any kind of writing - as long as the writing is good.

Writing about the 1950s has given me tremendous respect for my mother's generation.

We have more choice than ever before about where and how we buy and read books.

We are home to each other now.

In wartime, she thought to herself, you don__ call a death murder.

What used to be edgy (divorces) has become mainstream and what used to be mainstream (racism and sexism) has become shocking.

I love stories that suck you in, that you can't stop reading because you are quite simply there.

History is full of blank spaces, but good stories, invariably, are not.

I've always had a keen sense of history. My father was an antiques dealer and he used to bring home boxes full of treasures, and each item always had a tale attached.

I've always been attracted to stories about rebels - things that are unusual and sometimes dangerous.

On Twitter, people who had read my book followed me and I could see what else they were reading, why they'd liked what I'd written and by the by, more about them than I'd ever elicit from two minutes in a tent at a book festival, stuck behind a signing desk.