I didn't write anything until I was well over 30.

Quote by Penelope Lively

Topics: Penelope Lively Quotes

Since then, I have just read and read - but, that said, I suppose there...

Since then, I have just read and read - but, that said, I suppose there...

All I know for certain is that reading is of the most intense importance to...

All I know for certain is that reading is of the most intense importance to...

The present hardly exists, after all-it becomes the past even as it happens. A tricky...

The present hardly exists, after all-it becomes the past even as it happens. A tricky...

Conventional forms of narrative allow for different points of view, but for this book I...

Conventional forms of narrative allow for different points of view, but for this book I...

The Photograph is concerned with the power that the past has to interfere with the...

The Photograph is concerned with the power that the past has to interfere with the...

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

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

I'm intrigued by the way in which physical appearance can often direct a person's life;...

I'm intrigued by the way in which physical appearance can often direct a person's life;...

The consideration of change over the century is about loss, though I think that social...

The consideration of change over the century is about loss, though I think that social...

We make choices but are constantly foiled by happenstance.

We make choices but are constantly foiled by happenstance.

It seems to me that everything that happens to us is a disconcerting mix of...

It seems to me that everything that happens to us is a disconcerting mix of...

I can walk about London and see a society that seems an absolutely revolutionary change...

I can walk about London and see a society that seems an absolutely revolutionary change...

I didn't think I had anything particular to say, but I thought I might have...

I didn't think I had anything particular to say, but I thought I might have...

Deep down I have this atavistic feeling that really I should be in the country.

Deep down I have this atavistic feeling that really I should be in the country.

Equally, we require a collective past - hence the endless reinterpretations of history, frequently to...

Equally, we require a collective past - hence the endless reinterpretations of history, frequently to...

I have long been interested in landscape history, and when younger and more robust I...

I have long been interested in landscape history, and when younger and more robust I...

We all need a past - that's where our sense of identity comes from.

We all need a past - that's where our sense of identity comes from.

I've always been fascinated by the operation of memory - the way in which it...

I've always been fascinated by the operation of memory - the way in which it...

The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an...

The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an...

You learn a lot, writing fiction.

You learn a lot, writing fiction.

I didn't want it to be a book that made pronouncements.

I didn't want it to be a book that made pronouncements.