English - Novelist | April 2, 1946 - April 10, 2014
Being poor with three small children is terrifying. You can't make any plans. You know you're not going on holiday, ever. There's no way you could ever afford driving lessons or a car. And the guilt I used to feel: they had holes in their shoes, and at one point, I had to send them to school wearing Wellingtons when the sun was shining.
Sue Townsend
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I take life very seriously. I can laugh at it, because what else can you do? But it's a hard daily battle.
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Yes - I am usually overweight. I have had to be interested in diet because of being diabetic for 30 years and having kidney failure.
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When I was a child, I dreaded blindness. We used to ask: 'Would we rather be blind or deaf?' I said I'd rather be blind, even though I was scared of it. I couldn't bear not being able to hear music or talk to people.
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'The Gambler' by Dostoevsky. It was the first time I realised that it was possible to have good and evil in one person. It led me to read a lot of Russian literature.
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My second husband encouraged me to go to a writing group at our local theatre. It was my 'coming out of the closet' moment.
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I always wanted to be Jo in 'Little Women.' She's a bit reckless and feckless, always getting into trouble like me. But I'm probably more like Madame Bovary.
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My dark secrets are life threatening. Pockets of unhappiness set in aspic that build and build. I have this primitive feeling that if something good happens, it is going to be followed by something bad. There is always a price to pay.
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I am a very independent person, and I, you know, I maintain that independence, but, you know, certain things - I mean, it takes, you know, it's just much easier for other people if other people can help you every now and again.
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In the early days, it was, you know, I used to weep while I was writing. I used to grab at any kind of anything, any hint, any tip of how to make it easy.
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I've always been fascinated by totalitarian regimes. I'm not an admirer of them.
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Lack of confidence - every time I start a new piece of work, it seems I have to spend a long while under the duvet thinking I can't do it.
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