Jasper Fforde Quotes

I still feel threatened by academics, but my books have a lot of academic in-jokes and everybody assumes I went to university and studied English.

- Jasper Fforde

My mind wanders terribly. I'm not wholly annoyed by my daydreaming as it has been immense use to me as regards imaginative thought, but it doesn't help when it comes to concentration. And writing needs concentration - lots of it.

- Jasper Fforde

Our notions of self-determination are, on the whole, something of a myth. We are governed almost exclusively by our own peculiar habits, which makes those who rail against them that much more remarkable.

- Jasper Fforde

In the creative industries, there are few things more exciting than a zinger - a thought, idea, line, plot device - anything really, that just totally works in a fundamentally new and fresh way. It's like a uniquely lovely melody or a new taste idea in cooking. Something special, something new, something wonderful. They're also very rare.

- Jasper Fforde

I started writing because I wanted to write scripts, but I wasn't very good at it. Then I started writing short stories, sort of as treatments for the film scripts, and I found I enjoyed writing short stories far more than I enjoyed writing film scripts. Then the short stories got longer and longer and suddenly, I had novels.

- Jasper Fforde

So my humor, I'd say, comes from a mixture of lowbrow comedy shows and highbrow theater. It's an interesting mix.

- Jasper Fforde

Agents and publishers only want one thing - good writing.

- Jasper Fforde

The fun one can have writing books about books is limitless, to be honest.

- Jasper Fforde

I have a very varied taste in music. Everything from rap to classical to Latino to Rat Pack to jazz.

- Jasper Fforde

There is a contract between the reader and the writer. The readers give me their hard-earned cash, and I have to entertain them.

- Jasper Fforde

People who read my books have an open mind when it comes to new, bizarre, interesting and exciting ideas.

- Jasper Fforde

I'm not sure my books would translate into movies very easily. So rather than have someone do a terrible job, I haven't been willing to sell them.

- Jasper Fforde

There is a certain degree of 'steampunkishness' that creeps into my books.

- Jasper Fforde

Speak to any editor and ask them what they turned down, and they'll have long lists of books.

- Jasper Fforde

I hope that in my books there's an undertone of politics, basic tenets of how we should live.

- Jasper Fforde

I work very much on the principle that anything created by mankind has mischief and error hardwired into its inception.

- Jasper Fforde

I'm not of the opinion that the next logical step for a book is for it to be made into a film.

- Jasper Fforde

Perhaps fantasy offers imaginative escapism more than other genres.

- Jasper Fforde

It took me ten years and seven books to bag an agent - it took me that long to start writing good.

- Jasper Fforde

Class clowns become actors.

- Jasper Fforde

If you give children the freedom to do very little, quite a lot will do very little.

- Jasper Fforde

When I was about 10 or 11, I realised that people made movies; until then, I had thought they just happened.

- Jasper Fforde

When you're an author, you're always two people. Jasper the writer is different from Jasper the person at home.

- Jasper Fforde

I just write books, and I do it without any notion of what I should do or shouldn't do.

- Jasper Fforde

Every book should have a romance.

- Jasper Fforde