Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

The older I get, the more I love psychological thrillers.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

I think that not being proactive is a good thing. I like life to unfold on its own.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

My mother was born on February 8, 1944, in Lucknow, India. Her father, Albert, was half-Indian and half-Portuguese.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

I write in cafes, never at home. I cannot focus at home, am forever getting off my chair to do other things. In a cafe, I have to sit still, or I'll look a bit unhinged.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

My mother's childhood was complex, disjointed, and disturbing. As children, we would gather round and ask her to tell us again and again The Story of Her Childhood. It was Grimmsian, Andersenesque: a classic fairy tale replete with goodies and baddies.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

Whenever I watch any kind of competition, my immediate reaction when they call out the name of the winner is to look at the loser.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

Flowers would be wasted on me. I don't like valentines. I don't need gifts. I'm a pragmatic romantic.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

Everyone thinks they've got a book inside them.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

Nick Hornby's a genius.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

If one of my romantic-comedy colleagues had written and directed 'Love Actually,' they would have been torn limb from limb. I thought it was awful, contrived, dreadful. I could see every twist and turn. I thought it was despicable. It was the writing that got me.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

I don't really get into a writing routine until March or April, when I'll write a few hundred words a day, often in a cafe in the morning after the school run.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

In 1995, I was 27, and I completely got caught up in Blur and Oasis and the fashion of the time.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

I was made redundant from a job as a PA in a shirt-making company in 1996. I was devastated. I had been there for three years, and it was a job I really liked.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

Don't do a hard sell or try to tell the agent that you're going to be a bestseller or the next John Grisham. This goes down very badly. If your work is good, then they are skilled enough to know this within a few pages.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

My father was a self-employed textile agent, and the shop below his office was an art gallery.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

All my main characters have got bits of me, bits of my family, bits of my friends.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

There are people out there who would enjoy my books but wouldn't pick them up because they think it's not going to be for them. I find it infuriating.There's a lot more going on in my books than just romance.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

'Ralph's Party' was a romantic comedy, and at the end of it, the two main characters, Ralph and Jen, kiss for the first time and think they're going to be happy together. Then, 10 years later, I wrote a sequel in which they've been together for 10 years and are about to split up.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

I always wanted to write psychological thrillers.

Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell

I changed my mind about being a famous pop star when I realised that it meant I'd never be able to get on the Tube again.