Sara Sheridan Quotes

It may take a village to raise a baby, but hell! it takes an army to produce a book.

~ Sara Sheridan

It's entirely possible to base an entire book on a long-forgotten letter.

~ Sara Sheridan

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

~ Sara Sheridan

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

~ Sara Sheridan

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

~ Sara Sheridan

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.

~ Sara Sheridan

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

~ Sara Sheridan

In wartime, she thought to herself, you don’t call a death murder.

~ Sara Sheridan

We are home to each other now.

~ Sara Sheridan

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

~ Sara Sheridan

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

~ Sara Sheridan

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.

~ Sara Sheridan

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

~ Sara Sheridan

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

~ Sara Sheridan

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

~ Sara Sheridan

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

~ Sara Sheridan

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

~ Sara Sheridan

Researching books gets you into nothing but trouble.

~ Sara Sheridan

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

~ Sara Sheridan

In the industry, trying out new genres is not always encouraged but what I've discovered is that as a writer, a jaunt outside my comfort zone generally brings new skills to the main body of my work.

~ Sara Sheridan

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.

~ Sara Sheridan

I remember calling the council's cemetery department to ask about body decomposition in different soil types. Once they had verified that I was a novelist and not a sicko, they were extremely helpful.

~ Sara Sheridan

It's part of a writer's job to be nosy about everything.

~ Sara Sheridan

I love writing, and just as much, I love undertaking research.

~ Sara Sheridan

The space where I write is in my head, I suppose.

~ Sara Sheridan

I jealously guard my research time and I love fully immersing myself in those dusty old books and papers. It's one of the most enjoyable parts of my job.

~ Sara Sheridan

When a chap is passionate, the readership can sense it.

~ Sara Sheridan

Being a writer is a more difficult job than people imagine.

~ Sara Sheridan

I realised early on that being an author is a hugely misunderstood job.

~ Sara Sheridan

Edinburgh is a comfortable puddle for a novelist.

~ Sara Sheridan

I'm a professional writer and I consider it part of my job to publicise my work and these days part of that job is done online.

~ Sara Sheridan

As a historical novelist, there are few jobs more retrospective.

~ Sara Sheridan

Parts of my 20s and 30s have gone by in a flash but my childhood is with me all the time.

~ Sara Sheridan

It’s not until you’re older that you realise how important the things that happened to you when you were a kid are. Even things you only half remember.

~ Sara Sheridan

There was something unbearable about the damp, dark earth closing over a coffin and the still, empty flesh that was inside. She had attended a hundred funerals, but when you really loved someone there was something too final about a burial. Something brutal.

~ Sara Sheridan

An eerie atmosphere leeched from the soot-damaged walls. It was as if the house had died, and yet she felt she belonged here. It was as if the old place wanted to claim her from the grave.

~ Sara Sheridan

A chap’s impending death has a way of focusing the mind.


~ Sara Sheridan

Google maps are one thing but there's no substitute for pounding the beat and I spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to break into the back of the houses on Belgrave Place. Once I even for followed by a suspicious householder - I'd been hanging around staring at the exterior of his flat for too long.

~ Sara Sheridan

In the middle section of the book Mirabelle breaks into not one, but two houses near Belgravia Books. I had fun scoping these out - checking which windows looked least secure and figuring out how to scale the mews houses to the rear to get her inside. A man came out at one point, 'What are you doing?' he questioned me. 'The thing is, I'm writing a book,' I started with a smile. He waved me off, his hand as wide as a tennis racket. 'Everyone is writing a book, my dear,' he said. Between you and I, it's his house that MIrabelle ends up breaking into.

~ Sara Sheridan

In crime books it's possible to chart forensic technology by how well it has to be explained to a reader. In mid-Victorian crime novels fingerprinting has to be explained because it's new. Nowadays it's part of our world and we can simply assume that knowledge if we write about it.

~ Sara Sheridan