47 Mark Haddon Quotes for You to Enjoy

Mark Haddon

English Novelist

Born: Sep 26, 1962

Book Good Me People Think You

Related authors: Aldous Huxley Charles Dickens E. M. Forster J. R. R. Tolkien Thomas Hardy William Golding William Makepeace Thackeray

The way of creating believable characters is not by conforming to a set of PC rules. Mark Haddon

Way Rules Characters Conforming Creating Believable Set

A lot of roles for people with disabilities are quite patronising. It's a real pity when they are just used to give dull PC kudos to a drama, or when they're wheeled on in a tokenistic way without any real involvement in the plot. Mark Haddon

People Drama Way Plot Give Disabilities Involvement Without Real Dull Lot Roles Any Quite Just Pity Used

I went to boarding school, and then I went to Oxford, and I know how easy it is for certain groups of people to become wholly insulated from ordinary life. Mark Haddon

Life People School Become Easy Know Insulated How Oxford Ordinary Ordinary Life Boarding Boarding School Then Certain Groups Wholly

The most difficult book I wrote was the fourth in a series of linked children's books. It was like pulling teeth because the publisher wanted exactly the same but completely different. I'd much rather just do something completely different, even if there's a risk of it going wrong. Mark Haddon

Book Difficult Teeth Books Exactly Exactly The Same Something Rather Risk Wrong Like Most Wrote Because Linked Same Going Just Children Different Wanted Much Even Series Publisher Fourth Pulling

I think good books have to make a few people angry. Mark Haddon

Good Angry People Few Think Books Make Few People

I think I've learnt that there is no character so strange that you haven't shared their experience in some small way. Mark Haddon

Character You Strange Experience Think Way Some Small Shared Learnt

I think Britain has this tradition which suggests that if you make the readers laugh too much, you can't really be serious. Whereas, I think one of the functions laughter can perform in a book, as in life, is that it's a reaction to genuine horror. Mark Haddon

I always thought I'd eventually learn how to draw really well, and despite constant evidence to the contrary, I just kept on trying. If you're too good at anything, you don't have to think about the process, whereas I feel like I spend my life with my head under the bonnet, trying to understand how everything works. Mark Haddon

Life Good You Thought My Life Think Too Despite Spend Everything Evidence Draw Constant About Head Feel Like Well Learn Understand Always How Contrary Trying Just Whereas Anything Process Really Works Eventually Kept

I read very, very little fiction as a kid. All the books I can remember are junior science books. Mark Haddon

Science Remember Books Kid Read Very Junior Fiction Little

As to the number of novels I've abandoned... I shudder to think. I have thrown away five completed novels, and that's a gruesome enough figure. But not necessarily a waste of effort. Mark Haddon

Think Enough Completed Abandoned Thrown Five Effort Figure Novels Waste Away Shudder Necessarily Gruesome Number

Fiction that responds to recent world events is a hostage to fortune, because all momentous events look very different a year, two years, three years later. Mark Haddon

World Events Three Year Later Responds Hostage Look Because Years Very Different Fiction Fortune Momentous Recent Two

I've come to realize that most good ideas are precisely the ones you can't describe. Mark Haddon

Good You Good Ideas Come Ideas Most Precisely Realize Describe

I have very fond memories of swimming in Walden Pond when we lived in Boston. You'd swim past a log and see all these turtles sunning themselves. Slightly disturbing if you thought about how many more were swimming around your toes, but also rather wonderful. Mark Haddon

You Memories Wonderful Thought Past Swimming Slightly Log See Disturbing About Fond Fond Memories Rather More Boston Also Around How Were Very Pond Themselves Toes Your Many Swim Lived

I suffer depression only in the sense that I am a writer. We don't have proper jobs to go to. We are on our own all day. Show me a writer who doesn't get depressed: who has a completely stable mood. They'd be a garage mechanic or something. Mark Haddon

There's something rather wonderful about the fact that Oxford is a very small city that contains most of the cultural and metropolitan facilities you could want, in terms of bookshops, theatre, cinema, conversation. But it's near enough to London to get here in an hour, and it's near enough to huge open spaces without which I would go insane. Mark Haddon

You Conversation Theatre Wonderful Cinema Enough Insane Would City London About Something Rather Small Facilities Fact Could Open Open Spaces Contains Hour Most Terms Without Go Cultural Metropolitan Huge Very Get Oxford Want Spaces Which Near Here

One of the freedoms you get if you earn a lot of money from a book is to throw away what you want. And if you throw a lot away, the good stuff always comes back; nothing is lost. Mark Haddon

Good You Book Money Lost Nothing Earn Back Throw Stuff Freedoms Always Lot Get Want Away

Madness doesn't happen to someone alone. Very few people have experiences that are theirs alone. Mark Haddon

Alone People Madness Few Someone Very Few People Experiences Happen

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