200+ Quotes & Sayings By Sara Sheridan

He noticed that he felt calmer now she was here, still in that grey dress with her dowdy hat, the air around her redolent with orchid oil. Perhaps all women in England had this effect. Perhaps they all smelled of flowers and exuded a calm and measured purpose. He couldn’t remember. Sara Sheridan

There is something particularly fascinating about seeing places you know in a piece of art - be that in a film, or a photograph, or a painting. Sara Sheridan

I'm accustomed to reading Georgian and Victorian letters and sometimes you simply know in your gut that a blithe sentence is covering up a deeper emotion. Sara Sheridan

There was something indomitable about Maria — like Britannia. He’d heard that she kept her head during a Chilean earthquake the year before when men of greater age and experience had panicked. Afterwards she was discovered calmly taking notes, recording the way the land hand risen, for publication, she said. Sara Sheridan

Over the drop, a luminous pond lay below them like a pale magic lantern. It was as if the moon had plummeted into the water and smashed open. Engulfed in darkness, with only a scatter of stars above, the place felt like a bright secret — something ancient and precious. Sara Sheridan

Maria didn’t fear the sea but, as taught by her father, she respected its power. In her experience the ocean had no intent to drown travellers. Sara Sheridan

A flock of small birds took off from the wall of the fort. They moved like a length of dark silk caught by the breeze as they headed out to sea. Behind them, the sky was the colour of forget-me-nots. The sun blazed. Sara Sheridan

In a heartbeat, he understands why religions are born on the sands — there is nothing here for a man but his own mind. Sara Sheridan

When you fake emotion for a living, when you make your money providing fantasies for other people, tuning into their worlds and indulging them, you don’t invite someone into your world very easily. Sara Sheridan

I am more one for the story, I think, than the action. Sara Sheridan

It was clearly a lot more difficult in the field than in the office, where you could keep your distance and maintain a calculated composure. Being faced with real people was a far tougher call on one’s judgement. Sara Sheridan

Writers of novels live in a strange world where what's made up is as important as what's real. Sara Sheridan

I'm a novelist by trade and my job is to write a story rather than reconstruct actual events. Sara Sheridan

While what I write is always largely consistent with the records that remain I freely admit that where historical fact proves a barrier to invention, I simply move a detail a little one way or another. Sara Sheridan

I am a storyteller, not a historian, and it's my ambition to create something compelling - something unputdownable and riveting - that chimes with the real history but is, in fact, fiction. Sara Sheridan

As a reader you recognise that feeling when you're lost in a book? You know the one - when whatever's going on around you seems less real than what you're reading and all you want to do is keep going deeper into the story whether it's about being halfway up a mountain in Brazil in 1823 of in love with a man you aren't sure you can trust or fighting a war in the last human outpost, somewhere beyond the moon. Well, if you're writing that book it's real for you too. Sara Sheridan

He tasted of whisky and his skin was rough where he hadn’t shaved, but Mirabelle kissed him back. Sara Sheridan

Kissing her is like drinking salted water, he thinks. His thirst only increases. Sara Sheridan

Such a night cannot be shaken from a woman’s memory. Such a night changes your life forever. Sara Sheridan

All those kisses. There must have been a thousand. They engulfed me like some kind of all consuming dream where I became very alive and very relaxed at the same time. Sara Sheridan

Sometimes you don’t even have to have sex at all, and for that kind of sicko, you charge double. Sara Sheridan

She wishes her grandmother had not been so protective, and that she understood better what passes between a man and woman. As it is, she simply enjoys the feelings and wonders if they are what lightning is made of, for everything comes back to the weather. Tears like rain. Smiles like the sun. Hair as dry as sand and fear like the dark ocean. Sara Sheridan

It occurred to me that as a man I could do anything, everything I wanted. Sara Sheridan

What was it that marked me as a woman and was I prepared to let it go? Sara Sheridan

His heart is pounding and when he kisses her it is as if the whole of Riyadh disappears — the wide sky, the hard surface of the roof, the date palms and the water wells. Sara Sheridan

We had laid down the law : no chocolate, no sex. Sara Sheridan

When the first book out my sister-in-law read it and we were chatting at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and she said, "Oh my God, chapter six, sex and a murder, " and her five year old wandered into the kitchen and said, "Sixty hamburgers? Sara Sheridan

Historical fiction of course is particularly research-heavy. The details of everyday life are there to trip you up. Things that we take for granted, indeed, hardly think about, can lead to tremendous mistakes. Sara Sheridan

Writing historical fiction has many common traits with writing sci-fi or fantasy books. The past is another country - a very different world - and historical readers want to see, smell and touch what it was like living there. Sara Sheridan

I've always felt that good writing does not have to be literary. Sara Sheridan

I know a lot of writers, and everyone works differently, but this is something that we truly have in common across all genres - the fiction has to be real inside your head. Sara Sheridan

I have no problem in moving a date one way or another or coming up with a subplot that gets my characters in (or out) of a fix more rambunctiously than the extant records show. Sara Sheridan

People make interesting assumptions about the profession. The writer is a mysterious figure, wandering lonely as a cloud, fired by inspiration, or perhaps a cocktail or two. Sara Sheridan

Books have a vital place in our culture. They are the source of ideas, of stories that engage and stretch the imagination and most importantly, inspire. Sara Sheridan

When you think about the period in which Agatha Christie's crime novels were written, they are actually quite edgy for the time. Sara Sheridan

I decided to coin the term 'cosy crime noir' for Brighton Belle. That is 'cosy crime' for today's sensibilities because there is that slightly edgy element to it. Sara Sheridan

I have a really vivid imagination and I find it difficult to read scenes of complete graphic violence. That's not to say that graphic violence does not exist. It's just that I find it quite harrowing and I much prefer if it isn't completely outlined for me because my imagination can do that. Sara Sheridan

You spill a lot of beans in historical fiction. Crime fiction is about spilling no beans at all. You spill the least beans you possibly can. So because I had already written historical fiction before I was really good at the spilling beans section, but the new skill I had to learn when I was writing Brighton Belle was difficult. I had to avoid the equivalent of shouting, "this character's a murderer! Look who did it! . Sara Sheridan

Archive material is vital to the writer of historical fiction. Sara Sheridan

The best historical stories capture the modern imagination because they are, in many senses, still current - part of a continuum. Sara Sheridan

While I'm frustrated at the amount I'm expected to take on in the present, the 1950s woman was frustrated by being excluded - not being allowed to take things on at all. Sara Sheridan

Today women have the rights and equality our Victorian sisters could only dream of, and with those privileges comes the responsibility of standing up and being counted. Sara Sheridan

I'm not sure how much easier it is for a mother to balance her life now - have we simply swapped one set of restrictions for another? Sara Sheridan

I was asked the other day in which era I would choose to live. As a historical novelist, it comes up sometimes. As a woman I'd have to say I'd like to live in the future - I want to see where these centuries of change are leading us. Sara Sheridan

In the 1950s at least less was expected of women. Now we're supposed to build a career, build a home, be the supermum that every child deserves, the perfect wife, meet the demands of elderly parents, and still stay sane. Sara Sheridan

Looking at my life through the lens of history has made me increasingly grateful to standout women who pushed those boundaries to make the changes from which I have benefited. Sara Sheridan

I believe the era of the militant lady is back. Sara Sheridan

Often we don't notice the stringent rules to which our culture subjects us. Sara Sheridan

Change occurs slowly. Very often a legal change might take place but the cultural shift required to really accept its spirit lingers in the wings for decades. Sara Sheridan

As a novelist it is my job to tell stories that inspire and entertain but I am increasingly mindful that many of these historical tales (which of themselves are fascinating) relate directly to our issues in society today. Sara Sheridan

An important part of deciding where we want to go, as a society and culture, is knowing where we have come from, and indeed, how far we have come. Sara Sheridan

The net has provided a level playing field for criticism and comment - anyone and everyone is entitled to their opinion - and that is one of its greatest strengths. Sara Sheridan

I've been obsessed with stories since I was a kid so it's no surprise that I ended up writing for a living. Sara Sheridan

You couldn’t predict what was going to happen for one simple reason: people. Sara Sheridan

They march into the future to the rhythm of the past. Sara Sheridan

You have no future when the past rules you. Sara Sheridan

Our archives are treasure troves - a testament to many lives lived and the complexity of the way we move forward. They contain clues to the real concerns of day-to-day life that bring the past alive. Sara Sheridan

If we don't value the people who inspire us (and money is one mark of that) then what kind of culture are we building? Sara Sheridan

In wartime people took action because of what they believed in. In peacetime people were driven by their private concerns. Sara Sheridan

I think that everyone has something that they will kill for. Sara Sheridan

A vision of the little house in Soho flickered across his mind’s eye, his mother at a desk, writing in her journal, with hazy sunlight streaming through the morning windows. The woman inhabited a world he had once thought his own — a world of publishers and reliable suppliers. A London that was confident and competent amid its grey, puddle-strewn streets. Sara Sheridan

I can't bear literary snobbery. Sara Sheridan

Copywriters, journalists, mainstream authors, ghostwriters, bloggers and advertising creatives have as much right to think of themselves as good writers as academics, poets, or literary novelists. Sara Sheridan

Molly Bloom is simply the most sensuous woman in literature. Sara Sheridan

Edinburgh is alive with words. Sara Sheridan

A writer is like a stick of rock - the words go right through. Sara Sheridan

A word out of place or an interesting choice of vocabulary can spawn a whole character. Sara Sheridan

I am completely unflustered by whichever medium people choose to read my words. I'm just delighted they're reading them at all! Sara Sheridan

When you're depressed you retreat and you go into a smaller world. This is why Brighton worked well for the story, because it's a smaller world than London. Sara Sheridan

We can learn so much looking outside our core field of expertise. Sara Sheridan

You can’t trust anyone you have to pay, and really, they can’t trust you. Sara Sheridan

Jack had been the love of her life and he was gone. It seemed now that there had never been bad times, though she knew that wasn’t true.
 Sara Sheridan

If you've been hurt and you've grieved and you've been through the mill, it takes a long time to get over it. Sara Sheridan

I pride myself on making my own decisions, sir, " she said. "I do not welcome gentlemen making them for me. Sara Sheridan

Vesta was so good with paperwork — you could hand her a file of drab, seemingly dull information and she’d construct a story from it worthy of a novel.
 Sara Sheridan

Grabbing readers by the imagination is a writer's job. Sara Sheridan

A paucity of material can open up just as many possibilities. Sara Sheridan

I spend a lot of time imagining things - in fact, you could say that imagining things is my job. Sara Sheridan

Like good reading skills, good writing skills require immersion and imaginative engagement. Sara Sheridan

The curve of my waist in a tight fitting summer dress can really make me new friends. Sara Sheridan

I didn't expect to love being online as much as I do. I've met some wonderful people and discovered that however arcane some of my interests that there are people out there who are interested too. Sara Sheridan

Most fellas like the races, though, Miss. It’s only human nature Sara Sheridan

Nothing is long ago in an archive, my dear. In the records we treat the dead as same as the living.
that’s the whole point of keeping papers. It doesn’t matter if it’s a hundred years or only a few weeks. It’s all filed away, fresh as the day it went under the covers. Sara Sheridan

Didn’t young people care what the generation before them had achieved? And if not, why had everyone gone through those grim difficult wartime years? Sara Sheridan

It was nearly ten years since the peace though her memories of the war still felt fresh. Sara Sheridan

I'm in my 40s and I'm constantly surprised by how much my childhood still plays a part in my life. Sara Sheridan

Kindness was too painful. It had been a long time since he had had to endure it. Sara Sheridan

At length, when I considered it, I realized that the best of my actions were small things. Picking flowers and cooking food for my mother when she had been unwell, spending an afternoon with the children, sending money to my sister or kissing Henry’s tiny head as he slept in the nursery before I left. I thought of every detail and afterwards I felt better. Hellfire and brimstone have never appealed to me and I admit I become easily confused thinking of right and wrong. But I do understand kindness. Sara Sheridan

The jungle is alive. It’s dangerous as a living nightmare and brimful of hostility. Sara Sheridan

The moon was low but not full. The men set out along the dock in conversation. As they dropped onto the dark beach, Simmons declared, ‘There can be no better place in the world than this.’ Henderson had to agree. The beach was beautiful. The stars lit the sand and balmy air rode in as the waves washed up on paradise Sara Sheridan

It had occurred to her many times that on board it didn’t matter where you were coming from or where you were heading. Each voyage had its own charisma. Like writing a book — word by word — or crossing a country — step by step — each minute had to be lived moment by moment. Sara Sheridan

It was as if she was a dream, like London, which he could not entirely grasp and of which he was not worthy. He wanted to be part of it but had forgotten how. It seemed extraordinary and strange that this paragon among women had condescended to travel on his ship. In fact, she’d insisted upon it. Her presence was at once otherworldly and familiar, none of which explained why his brain ceased to function when he was in her company. Sara Sheridan

The smell of roasting meat rose from the street stalls in a sizzle and a fiddle player begged for coin as he rasped a haunting melody. Life could not be more perfect. Sara Sheridan

The daily chocolate left Will in high spirits, so that some days he believed he could wheel with the gulls that fished the foaming water close to shore. Now that he felt so free, it came to him that the corner of England, which up till now had been his whole universe, was in fact only a scrap of a boundless realm. Sara Sheridan

A journey is an achievement, Maria, just as much as a mathematical proof. Sara Sheridan

She enjoyed the sights and sounds of the dockside — ports were places of freedom. Sara Sheridan

Her eyes betrayed no shock at the sights of the quay as they unfolded — not the sweating deckhands, the prostitutes crowding the ship, the hubbub of stalls, including one where three slaves were for sale, their ankles manacled. She might as well have been walking through a country garden as she moved inexorably away from the water. Sara Sheridan

We might give her presents, tell some tales, but would she ever be able to really understand what the journey had been like for us? Sara Sheridan

It seemed to me that these months of watching and listening, second-guessing words and phrases, seeking so much that was new, had somehow changed me. Sara Sheridan