If you continually write and read yourself as a fiction, you can change what's crushing you.
Jeanette WintersonKnow thyself,โ said Socrates. Know thyself,โ said Sappho, โand make sure that the Church never finds out.
Jeanette WintersonGreat control and great discipline are necessary when you reach your own editing stage of the book, but in the early stages you have to be prepared to let anything happen and to get it wrong or go off track. The development of a character is not smooth or simple - it is as tricky as meeting someone new whom you would like to know better.
Jeanette WintersonThe continuous narrative of existence is a lie. There is no continuous narrative, there are lit-up moments, and the rest is dark.
Jeanette WintersonWorking-class families in the north of England used to hear the 1611 Bible regularly at church and at home ... for us, the language didn't seem too difficult. I especially liked 'the quick and the dead' - you really get a feel for the difference if you live in a house with mice and a mousetrap.
Jeanette Winterson