KeenBrain
KeenBrain
KeenBrain

Pat Barker Quotes


Share this page on

Quotes by Pat Barker

Showing 1-10 of 12 Quotes by Pat Barker

When I'm writing the first draft, I'm writing in a very slovenly way: anything to get the outline of the story on paper.

~Pat Barker

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Culturally, the First World War is the war that stands in for other wars.

~Pat Barker

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I wasn't thinking of a sequel when I finished 'Life Class.' What changed my mind was the perception that the characters had a lot of life left in them, a lot of unresolved conflicts, and also I became interested in the Tonks pastel portraits of facially disfigured soldiers and in the whole area of facial reconstruction.

~Pat Barker

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


When writing about historical characters I try to be as accurate as possible, and in particular not to misrepresent the view they held. With a real historical figure you have to be fair, and this is not an obligation you have in dealing with your own creations, so it is quite different.

~Pat Barker

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I wanted to be a novelist from a very early age - 11 or 12 - but I don't think I ever thought I would write historical fiction. I never thought I might write academic history because I simply wasn't good enough!

~Pat Barker

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


'Undertones of War' by Edmund Blunden seems to get less attention than the memoirs of Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, but it is a great book.

~Pat Barker

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Being a writer is a poverty trap. I mean, it's a terrible profession.

~Pat Barker

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Fiction should be about moral dilemmas that are so bloody difficult that the author doesn't know the answer.

~Pat Barker

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


What I hate in fiction is when the author knows better than the characters what they should do.

~Pat Barker

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


That balance between involvement and detachment is what novelists do. It's the ideal relationship between a novelist and a character, I think, total involvement and identity and empathy, stopping short of being autobiographical - in my case, anyway - but also quite detached.

~Pat Barker

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Biography

Nationality: English

Type: Writer

Born: May 8th, 1943

Links

Find Pat Barker on Amazon

Related Authors

Douglas Adams
Joseph Addison
Gilbert K. Chesterton
Agatha Christie
Arthur C. Clarke
Rudyard Kipling
Thomas Paine
John Ruskin

Popular Authors

Coco Chanel Anthony J. D'Angelo Aretha Franklin Alfred Hitchcock Elon Musk Sun Tzu Steven Wright Louis Xiv

Change your beliefs...change your life.

Get a related quote or insight every day.

(it's 100% free)

Follow Us On

Today's Birthdays

1588 - Thomas Hobbes

1856 - Booker T. Washington

1937 - Colin Powell

1816 - Samuel Freeman Miller

1827 - Joseph Lister

1834 - Frank Richard Stockton

1837 - Algernon Charles Swinburne

1883 - Walter Huston

1900 - Spencer Tracy

1901 - Melvyn Douglas

Birthdays on April 5th
All Birthdays

Popular Topics

Business Chance Food Graduation Great Moving On Patriotism Teen