Lucy Taylor Quotes

I suppose I also have a fondness for Cities because it was my first published novel - writing it got me over what had, up until that time, seemed like an insurmountable hurdle - the writing and completion of a novel. Oh, I'd begun several novels over the years, but never had the staying power or the faith in my own work to finish one.

From both my families, I've learnt important things.

From my family of chance, I learnt what it was like to be alone and unrecognized, to be perceived through the prism of delusion, a lost soul marooned in the belly of bedlam. I learned the beauty and power of language, but also its capacity for subtle perfidy, how it can be used to subvert and distort reality, to sanction cruelty and sugarcoat abuse. I learned that words can be the path to freedom or just another lock on the caged door.

And from my family of choice, I learn on a daily basis about love and loyalty, about burdens shared and intimacies treasured, about forgiveness and atonement and joy. I learn about the gift of a difficult childhood and the fact that 'it's never too late to have a happy one.