Literary Birthday – 21 July – Sarah Waters
Happy Birthday, Sarah Waters, born on 21 July 1966.
Sarah Waters Quotes
- I knew I’d always be a second-rate academic, and I thought, Well, Id rather be a second-rate novelist or even a third-rate one.
- Why do gentlemen’s voices carry so clearly, when women’s are so easily stifled?
- Respect your characters, even the minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters‘ stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist‘s.
- Why is it we can never love the people we ought to?
- I never expected my books to do even as well as they have. I still feel grateful for it, every single day.
- I’ve given up reading the papers. Since the world’s so obviously bent on killing itself, I decided months ago to sit back and let it.
Sarah Waters is an award-winning Welsh novelist. She is best known for her novels set in Victorian society and featuring lesbian protagonists, such as Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith. She explores LGBTQ+ love, class differences, gender roles, and hidden identities in her work. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009 and she holds an honorary degree from Lancaster University. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to literature. Each of her novels has received awards.
Suggested reading:
Source for Advice
Source for photo: Via publishers. Photo credit: Charlie Hopkinson
by Amanda Patterson
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