For a novelist, the gaps in a story are as intriguing as material that still exists. - Sara Sheridan
I've always felt that good writing does not have to be literary. - Sara Sheridan
A writer is like a stick of rock - the words go right through. - Sara Sheridan
A paucity of material can open up just as many possibilities. - Sara Sheridan
Writers are a product of where we come from but by looking at alternatives to the culture in which we live, we can find ways to change and hopefully improve it. - 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
It's part of a writer's job to be nosy about everything. - 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
As a historical novelist, there are few jobs more retrospective. - Sara Sheridan
Like good reading skills, good writing skills require immersion and imaginative engagement. - Sara Sheridan
The hard fact is that writing is available to readers because of market factors as much as particular writing talent. - Sara Sheridan
Writing is such a solitary occupation that it takes a long time to build up a group of professional peers with whom you genuinely identify. - Sara Sheridan
One of Scotland's most important cultural exports - stories. - Sara Sheridan
I believe the era of the militant lady is back. - 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
I believe that being able to communicate directly with readers is a boon. I certainly enjoy it as much as they do. - Sara Sheridan
The lively oral storytelling scene in Scots and Gaelic spills over into the majority English-speaking culture, imbuing it with a strong sense of narrative drive that is essential to the modern novel, screenplay and even non-fiction. - 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
Writing is a profession that has no real career structure and your best advice when you hit a difficulty is probably going to come from another writer one or two rungs on the career ladder ahead of you. - Sara Sheridan
The new contract between writers and readers is one I'm prepared to sign up to. I've met some fascinating people at events and online. Down with the isolation of writers I say! And long live Twitter. - Sara Sheridan
We are in the middle of the biggest revolution in reading and writing since the advent of the Gutenberg press. - Sara Sheridan
It is through our extended family that we first learn to compromise and come to an understanding that even if we don't always agree about things we can still love and look out for each other. - Sara Sheridan
Writing the same kind of material is no guarantee you'll be working from the same ethos so that writers from different fields are just as likely to have an understanding of each other's work as someone working in the same genre. - 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
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
Archive material is vital to the writer of historical fiction. - 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
History is full of blank spaces, but good stories, invariably, are not. - 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
Many existing top 20 Scottish writers have flourished in part because of good turns done by institutions, arts community, libraries and bookshops. - Sara Sheridan
You've got to make an effort to get the details right, because even through someone picks it up and knows it's a novel, they know someone's made it up and they know it's not real, if you make a small mistake they will cease to imaginatively engage with the story. - Sara Sheridan
The best historical stories capture the modern imagination because they are, in many senses, still current - part of a continuum. - 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
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
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
The space where I write is in my head, I suppose. - Sara Sheridan
Grabbing readers by the imagination is a writer's job. - Sara Sheridan
Being a writer is a more difficult job than people imagine. - Sara Sheridan
Without archives many stories of real people would be lost, and along with those stories, vital clues that allow us to reflect and interpret our lives today. - Sara Sheridan
It's entirely possible to base an entire book on a long-forgotten letter. - Sara Sheridan
Writers of novels live in a strange world where what's made up is as important as what's real. - 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
I love stories that suck you in, that you can't stop reading because you are quite simply there. - Sara Sheridan
The telling of any character is what they do in a different situation. - Sara Sheridan
For me, writing stories set, well, wherever they're best set, is a form of cultural curiosity that is uniquely Scottish - we're famous for travelling in search of adventure. - 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
I can't bear literary snobbery. - 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
I've always been attracted to stories about rebels - things that are unusual and sometimes dangerous. - Sara Sheridan
We have more choice than ever before about where and how we buy and read books. - 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
Often we don't notice the stringent rules to which our culture subjects us. - Sara Sheridan
I love writing, and just as much, I love undertaking research. - 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
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 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 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
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
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
I care about a lot of issues. I care about libraries, I care about healthcare, I care about homelessness and unemployment. I care about net neutrality and the steady erosion of our liberties both online and off. I care about the rich/poor divide and the rise of corporate business. - Sara Sheridan
The financial value put on the job of the writer and the misconceptions around that make it extremely difficult to enter the profession. - Sara Sheridan
This is the cusp of an age at least as exciting and as brimful of potential as the early days of the printing press. - 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
Our business is communication oftentimes through the medium of stories but our capacity has a far greater scope - to entertain certainly, but also to stimulate debate, to mark up changes and differences and that way, to maybe, just now and then, to change the world. - 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
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
Everyone assumes writers spend their time lounging around, writing and occasionally striking a pose whilst having a think. - Sara Sheridan
Writers are, as a profession, nothing if not eccentric. - Sara Sheridan
One of my favourite parts of writing is doing the research. It's the door into that magical reading/writing state - the raw material for making the story real. - Sara Sheridan
I spend a lot of time imagining things - in fact, you could say that imagining things is my job. - 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
Scotland consistently produces world-class writers. - Sara Sheridan
Edinburgh is a comfortable puddle for a novelist. - Sara Sheridan
History was my favourite subject at school and in my spare time I read historical novels voraciously from Heidi to the Scarlet Pimpernel and from Georgette Heyer to Agatha Christie. - Sara Sheridan
My fascination with history is as much about the present as it is about the past. - 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
Being able to read well in public and talk about your work in an engaging fashion is part of most writers' job specification. - Sara Sheridan
Sometimes I create a character from a scrap - a mere mention that has been left behind. - 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
The question shouldn't be, 'Are we guilty about our Colonial past?' it should be, 'Why aren't we more guilty about our corporate present? - Sara Sheridan
Writers have a well-deserved reputation for being eccentric. Everything you've heard is true. - Sara Sheridan
I realised early on that being an author is a hugely misunderstood job. - 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
On of the prerequisites for my mobile phone is that I have to be able to fling it at a wall if I lose my temper. - Sara Sheridan
An aunt is a safe haven for a child. Someone who will keep your secrets and is always on your side. - Sara Sheridan
Crime writers, I've noticed, can be jumpy. They live in a world where there are murderers on the loose and they haven't been caught yet! - 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
It may take a village to raise a baby, but hell! it takes an army to produce a book. - 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
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
A word out of place or an interesting choice of vocabulary can spawn a whole character. - Sara Sheridan
I'm a novelist by trade and my job is to write a story rather than reconstruct actual events. - 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
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
Writers need each other. - 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
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
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
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
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
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
I have become very aware how under-represented are the stories of the underprivileged and undervalued. Our records are, in general, very male and if not always the material of the rich, certainly (for obvious reasons) the material of the literate. - 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
Writing about the 1950s has given me tremendous respect for my mother's generation. - Sara Sheridan
There are as many different kinds of books as there are writers - as many different responses as there are readers. - Sara Sheridan
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. - Sara Sheridan
Edinburgh is alive with words. - Sara Sheridan
I hope that, whatever happens within the publishing industry, because of the increased control writers have of their own careers, better sales information and the advent of the internet, that ultimately this change in our working environment will be a change for the better. - Sara Sheridan
Molly Bloom is simply the most sensuous woman in literature. - 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
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'm proud of the culture I come from - we're a small country and a close-knit community. - Sara Sheridan
New technologies and resources offer exciting opportunities. They democratise access to information. - Sara Sheridan
We can learn so much looking outside our core field of expertise. - Sara Sheridan
Aunts offer kids an opportunity to try out ideas that don't chime with their parents and they also demonstrate that people can get on, love each other and live together without necessarily being carbon copies. - 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
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
Researching books gets you into nothing but trouble. - Sara Sheridan
As it stands there is a very strong argument that as the book trade becomes increasingly corporate it's our literary heritage that is at risk - a vital part of our culture. - Sara Sheridan
I'd never be where I am if more successful writers hadn't taken an interest in me and done me a good turn. - Sara Sheridan