Sarah Hall Quotes

Powerful Sarah Hall for Daily Growth

About Sarah Hall

Sarah Hall (b. 1974) is a celebrated British novelist, short story writer, and essayist, renowned for her poetic prose, dark imagery, and exploration of complex human emotions. Born in Cumbria, England, she grew up surrounded by the rugged landscapes that would later become central themes in her work. Hall's literary journey began early, with her first short story published at age 14 in the Cumberland News. She studied English and Creative Writing at Lancaster University before moving to London to pursue a career as a writer. Her debut novel, "The Electric Michelangelo" (2004), won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book and catapulted her onto the literary scene. Hall's works are deeply influenced by her interest in mythology, folklore, and the relationship between humans and nature. Her novels, such as "The Carhullan Army" (2007), "How to Paint a Dead Man" (2010), and "The Wolf Border" (2015), often depict dystopian or post-apocalyptic societies and the struggle for survival. In addition to her novels, Hall has written several acclaimed short story collections, including "The Beautifulindestructible" (2006) and "Mothersimplybecause, I love you" (2018). Her stories are known for their emotional intensity and vivid imagery. Hall's literary achievements have earned her numerous awards, including the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award in 2004. Her work has been translated into multiple languages, and she continues to be a significant voice in contemporary British literature. Quotes from Sarah Hall often reflect her thought-provoking perspectives on life, love, and the human condition, such as: "Everything we do is an act of survival," and "Love is a place between you and everything you love."

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The heart's memory eliminates the small hurts, forgetting whippets of pain like the sting of nettles."

This quote suggests that our emotional memories tend to soften or gloss over minor pains and hardships, focusing instead on the larger, more significant experiences in life. Just as nettle stings can be quickly forgotten, so too are the smaller hurts erased from our heart's memory over time. The focus shifts towards moments that carry greater meaning, leaving behind only the memories of love, joy, and fulfillment.

"The best part of a dream is that it makes way for the next one."

This quote implies that fulfilling a dream often leads to new opportunities, as one achievement paves the way for another ambition. It suggests that the pursuit of dreams is a cyclical process, where each attained goal serves as the foundation for the next aspiration. In other words, achieving dreams does not mark an end point, but rather a stepping stone toward further growth and development.

"We are creatures who can see the future and live in the past, which is why we are so apt to trip over the present."

This quote suggests that humans have a unique ability to envision the future and reflect on the past. However, this tendency to focus excessively on both timeframes can cause us to overlook or neglect the current moment, leading to potential misunderstandings or missed opportunities. In other words, while it's beneficial to plan for the future and learn from the past, it is essential to strike a balance by focusing on and embracing the present as well.

"You can't rebuild someone else's life, any more than you can build your own if all you have are the plans and not the materials."

This quote by Sarah Hall emphasizes that mere knowledge or blueprints (plans) aren't enough to achieve significant changes in one's own life or in helping others. It implies that actual resources, effort, time, and often personal experiences are crucial components required to construct a meaningful and sustainable life for oneself or another person. In other words, good intentions and ideas (plans) alone cannot yield successful outcomes without the necessary tools, skills, and support (materials).

"There are some things you only understand in retrospect."

This quote suggests that sometimes, the true meaning or significance of experiences, events, or situations becomes clear only after they have happened and we have had time to reflect on them. In other words, understanding comes with hindsight, as we are able to piece together the context, implications, and lessons from our past experiences more effectively when we look back on them rather than trying to decipher their significance while in the midst of them. This can also imply that personal growth often involves a process of self-discovery and learning through reflection on one's past experiences.

One of the things I try to do with my writing is try to evoke the spirit of the place. I think these things imprint on the landscape and the culture.

- Sarah Hall

Think, I Think, Imprint

There was a lot of fiction I did not enjoy, whose landscapes seemed bland and unevocative, the characters faint-hearted within them, the very words lacking vibrancy.

- Sarah Hall

Fiction, Landscapes, Very, Lacking

I've always been interested in wolves, since I was a child. There was a wolf enclosure in a wildlife park very close to where I was brought up; they were the main attraction.

- Sarah Hall

Always, Been, Very, Attraction

I was the feral, mud-bathing, tree-climbing variety of child. Why would I want to read about pirates when I could build a raft and terrorise sheep along the riverbanks?

- Sarah Hall

Want, Could, Read, Pirates

I studied the short story as part of my creative writing course at university but then set off as a novelist. Generally, there is a sense that even if you want to write short stories, you need to do a novel first.

- Sarah Hall

University, Part, Novelist

Set in a nameless colonial country, in an unspecified era, Katie Kitamura's second novel tracks the fortunes of a landowning family during the first waves of civil unrest.

- Sarah Hall

Waves, Country, Set, Unrest

My favourite pool is located in a remote valley in the eastern Lake District, surrounded by vine-hung cliffs and slippery boulders. It has a torrential sheet waterfall at one end and is almost black in colour, so it appears bottomless, a portal to nowhere.

- Sarah Hall

Surrounded, Cliffs, Almost, Bottomless

Writing, and its theatre of operation, is better than working shifts packing frozen sausages; that's all I need to think about if I'm having difficulties.

- Sarah Hall

Think, Need, Having, Shifts

My writing is called exotic or avant-garde because I write about rural places. Has it really come to this, that if you write about the country you are avant-garde? How did this happen? Modern agriculture and spaces are still so relevant.

- Sarah Hall

Country, Rural, I Write, Avant-Garde

Over the years, I've lived in a variety of places, including America, but I was born and raised in the Lake District, in Cumbria. Growing up in that rural, sodden, mountainous county has shaped my brain, perhaps even my temperament.

- Sarah Hall

Rural, Shaped, County, Lake

I wander around the house and write in bed, at the kitchen table, by the window, in the yard.

- Sarah Hall

Bed, Yard, Kitchen Table, Wander

I have ideas. I hear voices. Words accumulate. It's still an overriding impulse. And I'm self-employed, which means I have to be sensible and motivated about paying the bills.

- Sarah Hall

Still, Which, Means, Sensible

Having judged a few competitions, it's clear that novelists are often the laziest short story writers.

- Sarah Hall

Clear, Having, Novelists, Competitions

When you are a kid, a wolf is an amazing sight, so sumptuous. I sort of knew these were splendid creatures, that I was not going to find them outside roaming around. It was like a dog, but not a dog. It was incredible, a god!

- Sarah Hall

Kid, Splendid, Around, Sumptuous

Art history became an A-level option at my school the year I started sixth form. This happened because another student and I cajoled and bullied the head of the art department into arranging it with the examination board.

- Sarah Hall

Student, Year, Became, Arranging

I married an American. He was from the Pacific Northwest but went to law school in the South, so I was living in Virginia and North Carolina.

- Sarah Hall

Law, Living, Carolina, Law School

When I moved back to Cumbria, one of the first things I did was locate a decent bookshop.

- Sarah Hall

Back, Locate, Moved, First Things

I can gabble on now, but I couldn't when I was a kid, so I spent a lot of time in my own head on the moors by myself. It felt like writing was the right way to express myself.

- Sarah Hall

Kid, My Own, Like, Right Way

Show, don't tell, is a mantra repeated by tutors of creative writing courses the world over. As advice for amateurs, it is sound and helps avoid character profiling, unactivated scenes, and broken narrative frames.

- Sarah Hall

Broken, Over, Courses, Profiling

Language description and metaphors seem readily available. The things I have to work harder at are plot, pacing, and form.

- Sarah Hall

Work, Available, Readily, Pacing

It's very interesting to me that the nationalist movement in Scotland has become so positive and self-reflective rather than anti-English. The referendum in 2014 was peaceful, for all its deeply and passionately divided people.

- Sarah Hall

Rather, Very, Passionately, Nationalist

I felt impelled to write. It felt demonic, and I wanted to improve, the way some people habitually pick up a guitar and get better at playing it and making up songs.

- Sarah Hall

Some, Making, Felt, Making Up

Various books revolutionised what I think about novels and showed me that they're not strict, formulaic things. 'Coming Through Slaughter' by Michael Ondaatje was one of them.

- Sarah Hall

Think, Through, I Think, Strict

Revisiting much-loved childhood novels is never easy.

- Sarah Hall

Childhood, Never, Revisiting, Novels

I don't like novels that tie everything up in a plot-y way. I always think that's not really true of life, particularly of people in power.

- Sarah Hall

Think, Always, Particularly, Novels

Dystopian novels, such as Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four,' often tend to site their despotised or deformed civilisations in urban environments.

- Sarah Hall

Nineteen, Environments, Novels

Apex predators are good for an environment in terms of biodiversity and trophic cascade - we have very few. But realistically, only a few areas could sustain free-roaming wolves in Britain, mostly in Scotland.

- Sarah Hall

Very, Predators, Mostly, Realistically

It's a lovely feeling, just working away at the desk, putting words down, building words up... I think you have to be aware that what you're doing is not just a private act, it's a societal thing.

- Sarah Hall

Doing, Think, Lovely, Societal

Wonderful characters rotate around and through bookshops on a daily basis, competing with and possibly even triumphing over fiction when it comes to entertainment, strangeness and inspiration.

- Sarah Hall

Through, Competing, Over, Possibly

I was a terrible painter - my portraits looked like the evil chimera love-children of Picasso's demoiselles and the BBC test card clown.

- Sarah Hall

Test, BBC, Looked, Card

We all have our preferences - some people go for birds - but for me, there's just something about the wolf; the design of it is really aesthetically pleasing.

- Sarah Hall

Wolf, Some, Preferences, Just Something

I don't reckon there are many writers who start out really expecting writing to be an attainable occupation. Well, I didn't. It was a pipe dream.

- Sarah Hall

Start, Expecting, Occupation, Pipe

In my early 20s, connecting with fiction was a difficult process. There seemed to be little rhyme or reason to what was meaningful, what convinced, and what made sense.

- Sarah Hall

Process, Reason, Early 20s, Rhyme

You think back and you ask yourself why you became so interested in wolves. I think it was because when I was very small, growing up in a little hamlet near Shap, we would go to Lowther Wildlife Park for birthday parties. Now closed, it was only three miles from my parents' house.

- Sarah Hall

Birthday, Small, Became, Wolves

For its speculations to be taken seriously, dystopian fiction must be part of a discussion of contemporary society, a projection of ongoing political failures perhaps, or the wringing of present jeopardy for future disaster.

- Sarah Hall

Failures, Part, Speculations, Jeopardy

It's been noted that writing about the production of art is a masquerade or metaphor for writing about writing. This may be true, there are similarities - both the verbal and the visual represent the thing or the concept.

- Sarah Hall

Art, Been, May, Represent

The beauty of interdisciplinary conversation is that the mode of expression is essentially different for each practitioner, even if ideas are shared.

- Sarah Hall

Beauty, Expression, Shared, Conversation

For every prescriptive idea about the craft of fiction, there's at least one writer who makes a virtue of the contrary.

- Sarah Hall

Fiction, Idea, About, At Least One

I tend to research as I write so that the narrative can take priority, which is important for a piece of fiction, I think, finding out facts as and when I need to.

- Sarah Hall

Think, I Think, Which, Priority

I don't see that books can be written without political context - not if they're relevant and ambitious.

- Sarah Hall

See, Relevant, Books, Context

The short story is very good at looking at shadow psychologies and how the system breaks down underneath.

- Sarah Hall

Shadow, Breaks, Very, Underneath

Writers cannot simply have a go, imagining it's easier to produce a story than a novel because fewer words are required. Have a go by all means; be intrepid, but be equipped.

- Sarah Hall

Go, Means, Equipped, Novel

Daniel Woodrell has made a name as a master of prose with personality - a densely descriptive, gamey form of storytelling, one might say traditional storytelling - of late rather an unfashionable mode.

- Sarah Hall

Storytelling, Rather, Prose, Daniel

Nightmares of a capital city overwhelmed by tsunami, war or plague transfix us, but catastrophe is first felt locally, and there are many homes outside the city.

- Sarah Hall

City, Overwhelmed, Capital, Locally

Swimming in the U.K. is not really about enjoying a sultry experience. It's about cold, clear acts of purification, and constitutional durability. It's about invigoration and bravado.

- Sarah Hall

Clear, Constitutional, About, Bravado

James Salter has talents on the page we novelists would sell souls to the devil for.

- Sarah Hall

Novelists, Would, James, Talents

Short stories are often strong meat. Reading them, even listening to them, can be challenging, by which I do not mean hard work, simply that a certain amount of nerve and maturity is required.

- Sarah Hall

Strong, Listening, Which, Nerve

I'm a home-roamer and can't do study or office scenarios.

- Sarah Hall

Office, Study, Scenarios

Swimming in the cold and the dark of British autumn is not for the faint-hearted.

- Sarah Hall

Swimming, Dark, Cold, Autumn

A lot of my literature deals with these people who are somehow magnetic because they have that ability to step over lines.

- Sarah Hall

People, Over, Lot, Lines

There's nothing like the vast, dark Atlantic to remind you of your mortality. But terror can also be exhilarating.

- Sarah Hall

Like, Exhilarating, Terror, Remind

Quite a lot is required of writers these days in terms of, if not promoting the work, then being a representative of the work. It's a difficult thing, really.

- Sarah Hall

Work, Difficult, Promoting, Representative

It's taken me 15 years to feel I might be able to write and publish short stories, and for the assiduous checks of the industry to allow some through.

- Sarah Hall

Through, Some, Allow, Checks

I like extreme situations: people pushed out of their comfort zones; the civil veneer stripped off.

- Sarah Hall

People, Like, Stripped, Extreme

I was useless at science. I was never going to be an astrophysicist.

- Sarah Hall

Science, Never, Going, Useless

I'm very aware of modern countryside issues, such as rewilding: how, as science progresses, we begin to understand that a healthy ecosystem is multiform.

- Sarah Hall

Understand, Very, Ecosystem, Countryside

For about two years, while researching 'The Wolf Border,' I was a complete wolf bore. I would regurgitate everything I was researching, whether people were interested or not.

- Sarah Hall

Wolf, Border, About, Bore

I am a feminist, although I always worry saying that because you then get people asking you about the 1970s.

- Sarah Hall

Worry, Asking, Always, Feminist

Our lives are politically wound.

- Sarah Hall

Wound, Lives, Politically, Our Lives

I write in the mornings or afternoons - I'm not a night owl and can write for only four or five hours maximum.

- Sarah Hall

Owl, Hours, I Write, Maximum

You are often asked to explain your work, as if the reader isn't able to work it out. And people always try and label you by your work.

- Sarah Hall

Work, Always, Explain, Label

I've always been interested in the history of radical feminism - what happened to those women of the 1960s and '70s.

- Sarah Hall

Always, Been, Radical, Feminism

I was brought up in the north of England, which is probably no rougher than anywhere else, but I remember as a child being kind of mesmerized by girls fighting on the playground.

- Sarah Hall

England, I Remember, Which, Anywhere Else

I was brought up in Cumbria where I saw all these fierce agricultural women.

- Sarah Hall

Fierce, Brought, Saw, Agricultural

Fear is a relative thing; its effects are relative to power.

- Sarah Hall

Power, Effects, Thing, Relative

I used to dislike bookshops immensely as a child and was won over only later in life.

- Sarah Hall

Over, Dislike, Later, Immensely

You always hope you'll surprise somebody with the work. If you write something human and appealing, the perfect reader could be anyone.

- Sarah Hall

Surprise, Perfect, Always, Appealing

I don't think practitioners should necessarily be advertising their work.

- Sarah Hall

Work, Think, Should, Advertising

You can't see all of a place until you look at it from a distance.

- Sarah Hall

Place, See, Until, Distance

My work is of me; it's not me. I want it to be far more extraordinary than I am.

- Sarah Hall

Work, I Am, Far, Extraordinary

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