People forget that old women were young once, but d'you think we old women forget? In my heart, I'm still thirty.

Coming up with the idea is the worst part of writing for me.

To be honest, I wrote so many drafts of this book [ The Nightingale ] and changed the characters so many times; the real surprise is that I finished the book at all.

I had read a lot of books on World War II, but I didn't know that downed airmen had hiked over the frozen peaks of the Pyrenees Mountains in shoes that didn't fit, in clothes that weren't warm enough, with German and Spanish patrols searching for them.

I have to admit that WWII France was not at all on my radar for Kristin Hannah.

Sometimes a story grabs hold of you and won't let go.

You learned to run from what you feel, and that's why you have nightmares. To deny is to invite madness. To accept is to control.