Quotes By Jeanette Winterson

One room is always enough for one person. Two rooms is not enough for two people. That is one of the conundrums in life.

I don't read reviews because by then it's too late - whatever anyone says, the book won't change. It is written.

Academics love to make theories about a body of work, but each book consumes the writer and is the sum of his or her world.

Quest is at the heart of what I do-the holy grail, and the terror that you'll never find it, seemed a perfect metaphor for life.

My books always begin with a sentence and an image - not necessarily connected.

It is helpful for a woman artist not to have a husband.

Naked is the best disguise.

Whatever is powerful to you can be translated into something which will matter to somebody that you will never know.

I am a writer who happens to love women. I am not a lesbian who happens to write.

Ordinary professionalism and 20 years' experience can accomplish a lot, but it can't access the hidden places.

My friends and the people who are close to me know what I am. And that is enough.

What you risk reveals what you value.

Life gives you enough hard knocks so it's unlikely you'll stay that sure of yourself.

I think we still believe that ambition is for boys.

I'm not a quitter.

Whether you want to call it God or the mystery of the cosmos doesn't matter to me.

I don't believe in happy endings.

What's invisible to us is also crucial for our own well-being.

I live alone, with cats, books, pictures, fresh vegetables to cook, the garden, the hens to feed.

I didn't mind being unpopular at school, because everyone else was a heathen.

I don't write for any group. I write to bring about a change in consciousness.

Writers have to have a knack for listening. I need to be able to hear what is being said to me by the voices I create.

I think people deceive themselves about themselves, particularly as they get older.

Nobody knows anything about Shakespeare the person. It's all legend, it is all rumor.

They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?

I hated historical novels with fluttering cloaks.

Creative work is incredibly difficult, and that is where the tests lie.

I like to look at how people work together when they are put into stressful situations, when life stops being cozy.

The curious are always in some danger. If you are curious you might never come home.

I never wanted children. If I'd been deeply in love with a man and he'd wanted children, it would have been difficult.