Jojo Moyes

Literary Birthday – 4 August – Jojo Moyes

Happy Birthday, Jojo Moyes, born 4 August 1969.

10 Quotes

  1. You only get one life. It’s actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.
  2. Don’t set pen to paper until you know your main characters inside out. Create files detailing their appearances, likes, dislikes, and personal background. You may not use all the information, but it is a crucial step in planning your story.
  3. Chick-lit may be staggering on its heels, but women’s fiction is alive and kicking.
  4. I hadn’t realised that music could unlock things in you, could transport you to somewhere even the composer hadn’t predicted. It left an imprint in the air around you, as if you carried its remnants with you when you went.
  5. Sometimes life is a series of obstacles, a matter of putting one foot in front of the other. Sometimes, it is simply a matter of blind faith.
  6. I wrote three books before I got one published. Most writers do. Have faith, and know that with each work you are getting better.
  7. Love is the driver for all great stories: not just romantic love, but the love of parent for child, for family, for country.
  8. My characters make incomprehensible decisions until you stand in their shoes. Then it makes more sense. Life is very rarely black and white, and most people are trying to do their best. I try not to judge.
  9. Marriage is a decades-long experiment, conducted mostly in private; a test of will in the face of unexpected obstacles.
  10. Try to write at least 500 words a day. You may ditch 499 of them tomorrow, but you will still be moving forward.

JoJo Moyes is a British journalist and novelist. Her books include Me Before YouThe Last Letter From Your Lover, and Foreign Fruit. Follow her on Twitter: @jojomoyes

Image source:

Thesupermat, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paris_-_Salon_du_livre_de_Paris_2017_-_Jojo_Moyes_-_001_(cropped).jpg

Amanda Patterson by Amanda Patterson

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Posted on: 4th August 2015
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