Penelope Lively

The Photograph is concerned with the power that the past has to interfere with the present: the time bomb in the cupboard. ↗

— Penelope Lively

#concerned #cupboard #interfere #past #photograph

The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an alternative way of telling a story and manipulating characters; the novel is such a wonderfully flexible form. ↗

— Penelope Lively

#always #approach #characters #fiction #flexible

The present hardly exists, after all-it becomes the past even as it happens. A tricky medium, time - and central to the concerns of fiction. ↗

— Penelope Lively

#becomes #central #concerns #even #exists

There's a preoccupation with memory and the operation of memory and a rather rapacious interest in history. ↗

— Penelope Lively

#interest #memory #operation #preoccupation #rather

We make choices but are constantly foiled by happenstance. ↗

— Penelope Lively

#constantly #happenstance #make

We read Greek and Norse mythology until it came out of our ears. And the Bible. ↗

— Penelope Lively

#came #ears #greek #mythology #our

You learn a lot, writing fiction. ↗

— Penelope Lively

#learn #lot #writing #you

I'm now an agnostic but I grew up on the King James version, which I'm eternally grateful for. ↗

— Penelope Lively

#eternally #grateful #grew #i #james

I'm intrigued by the way in which physical appearance can often direct a person's life; things happen differently for a beautiful woman than for a plain one. ↗

— Penelope Lively

#beautiful #beautiful woman #differently #direct #happen