I love research, and in fact it's liberating because you have to create your own world. No one can say "I've just got back from the 1860s, and you go…

- Stef Penney

Clearly the secret of happiness...is a variation on the general principle of banging your head against a wall, and then stopping.

- Stef Penney

I suppose the short chapters and differing narrative points of view are quite "cinematic" devices, which came very naturally to me.

- Stef Penney

Just because we think of wolves (or the wilderness, or another race) as wild and fierce, doesn't mean there isn't another side to them.

- Stef Penney

I definitely do feel a pull toward people and places that are far from my own life.

- Stef Penney

If writers stuck to firsthand experience, novels would be pretty limited.

- Stef Penney

I don't use real people for inspiration.

- Stef Penney

Endings are never neat, because when life goes on, there is no end. You may want to speculate about what the characters get up to afterwards, but I f…

- Stef Penney

...it just goes to show you can't leave anything behind. You bring it all with you, whether you want to or not.

- Stef Penney