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Michelle Paver Quotes

Powerful Michelle Paver for Daily Growth

Why do so many children love the idea of being snowed in or shipwrecked, of having to survive on one's own? When I was a child, I was no exception. I wanted to hunt with a bow and arrow like the Stone Age people: to skin deer and build my own shelter. And I desperately wanted a wolf. As we lived in London, my options were limited.

- Michelle Paver

Love, Exception, Deer, London

When my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1991, I asked him if he had any regrets, and he said no. I was a burnt-out litigation solicitor in my thirties, hating my life, and his cancer made me re-evaluate it all.

- Michelle Paver

Father, My Life, Regrets, Hating

Have you ever held a snake? They are so strong. You can see why there are so many myths about them: they are unlike any other creature. It's extraordinary how that little brain can keep everything moving in different directions.

- Michelle Paver

Strong, Other, Held, Snake

I sometimes wonder why I do so much research - I look at other successful writers, and I think it must just be so relaxing to write about flying horses or something, but I have to make it plausible.

- Michelle Paver

Think, Other, I Think, Plausible

For a novelist, the great thing about the Stone Age people is that we know virtually nothing about their beliefs - which means that I get to make it up! But it's still got to be plausible.

- Michelle Paver

Still, Which, Means, Plausible

To experience the northern forest in the raw, I went to northern Finland and Lapland, travelling on horseback, and sleeping on reindeer skins in the traditional open-fronted Finnish laavu. I ate elk heart, reindeer and lingonberries, and tried out spruce resin: the chewing gum of the Stone Age.

- Michelle Paver

Forest, Chewing Gum, Horseback

I've climbed Stromboli when it's erupting, which is quite a heavy climb: three hours with a helmet to get to the top. When you're there, and it's dark, and you can see this eruption and feel it, it's quite different to watching it on TV.

- Michelle Paver

Hours, TV, Which, Climbed

To get the feel of the polar night, I went back to Spitsbergen in winter. I went snowshoeing in the dark and experimented with headlamps and climbed a glacier in driving snow.

- Michelle Paver

Night, Feel, Polar, Climbed

I wanted to write a very simple story about a boy, a wolf, a girl, a bear and a forest, so I thought I might set it in the past. I didn't realise that it went back to when I was 10: I used to love the Stone Age when I was a kid and wanted to live in it, and I got rid of my bed and slept on the floor, but I didn't remember it.

- Michelle Paver

Love, Bed, Very, Stone

My novel 'Wolf Brother' is set in northern Scandinavia during the late Stone Age, so I was aware from the start of Norse influences. I used some Norse names, and the soul-eater Thiazzi is based on the Norse storm giant, Thiassi.

- Michelle Paver

Some, Used, Northern, Stone

For me, inspiration isn't a sort of spark which lights the fire of the story. It's more like a thread, one of many, which you can tease out of a story once it's written, if you feel so inclined.

- Michelle Paver

More, Like, Which, Tease

I rode 300 miles through the forest and ate all sorts of strange food. And every time 'Torak' did something new, like swimming with killer whales or kayaking, I thought I'd better go and do it.

- Michelle Paver

Thought, Forest, Through, Whales

The most remote place I've been to was in Greenland. I remember setting out for a solo hike from a small cabin, itself several hours' boat ride from the nearest settlement.

- Michelle Paver

Small, I Remember, Been, Hike

I saw myself as a trailblazer in the 1980s as a female lawyer in the City. It was exciting, as women were outnumbered by men five to one. But while I had this sense of trailblazing, in reality, I wasn't pushing boundaries; it was just a personal myth I'd created, as I was doing a job I wasn't enjoying.

- Michelle Paver

City, Doing, Had, Outnumbered

I talk to children in schools all over the world, and I've found that both boys and girls are fascinated by how hunter-gatherers manage to survive entirely on what's around them in their environment: trees, rocks, animals and plants.

- Michelle Paver

Trees, Around, Fascinated, To Survive

I didn't wake up one day and think, 'I'm not going to have children.' My mother was a housewife and brought up three children, so I just thought it would happen.

- Michelle Paver

Think, Happen, Brought, Housewife

I'm quite happy trekking around Greenland on my own, but those big book tours in America or the Far East are the only time I ever really feel lonely.

- Michelle Paver

Happy, Big, Far East, Only Time

In general, when I'm writing, I concentrate on the story itself, and I leave it to other people, such as agents and publishers, to work out who it's for.

- Michelle Paver

Work, Other, Concentrate, Agents

At university - when I was supposed to be studying biochemistry - I had tried to write a children's book about a boy and a wolf cub, and there was a paragraph in that which was from the wolf's point of view.

- Michelle Paver

Studying, Paragraph, Which, Cub

It's true to say that once I've got the bare bones of a story, I often get ideas from my own research trips to faraway places.

- Michelle Paver

Own, Say, My Own, Trips

Doing field trips rather than simply researching online allows me to experience the story from the point of view of my main character; you can't get that by sitting at a desk.

- Michelle Paver

Doing, Point Of View, Rather, Trips

I'd been interested in animal behaviour as a teenager and had thought of studying it at one point.

- Michelle Paver

Thought, Studying, Been, Teenager

My mother had to stop me reading to make me go and get some fresh air. I used to get so annoyed. She actually had to sit on my book because, otherwise, I would find it.

- Michelle Paver

Book, Some, Had, Fresh Air

I loved the myths of ancient Greece and Egypt.

- Michelle Paver

Loved, Egypt, Myths, Greece

By about chapter six of 'Wolf Brother,' I was having so much fun that I knew I wanted it to go on and I couldn't tell Torak's story in one book. So I sat down, and it took me about a week to plan in broad outline all six books.

- Michelle Paver

Chapter, Week, Tell, So Much Fun

I don't use the Internet, as I don't like living with lots of distractions. I have tried, but I found it a hindrance. as my sense of priorities goes out of the window and it pulls me out of my writing, particularly with email. I'd sit there for hours just replying to emails.

- Michelle Paver

Distractions, Use, Hindrance, Email

I'm not the next J. K. Rowling. We've got one already. It's flattering to be compared to her. I like her books and loved the first three particularly, but apart from the fact that they've got young boys as heroes, they're very different.

- Michelle Paver

Fact, Next, Very, Apart

I didn't do it for the money. I know a lot of people say that, but if I'd wanted to be rich, I'd have stayed working as a city lawyer. I gave that up eight years ago and took a massive drop in salary, and I didn't mind because I was doing what I loved. There's plenty of material for the other five books.

- Michelle Paver

Doing, Drop, Other, Lawyer

I'm constantly being surprised and finding unplanned things - because the writing is a process of experiencing things on the ground with the characters.

- Michelle Paver

Process, Being, Constantly, Surprised

My thirties merged into my forties, and I sort of gradually realised that I don't really want children. Now I'm glad I don't have them. Part of that is because I have my books.

- Michelle Paver

Want, Part, Realised, Thirties

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