At an early school, when I was about 5, they asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Everyone said silly things, and I said I wanted to be an actress. So that was what I wanted to be, but what I was, of course, was a writer. – Tanith Lee
It’s very selfish when I write. I’m not aware, ever, of writing for another person; I’m not even really aware of writing for myself. – Tanith Lee
The other writer who had a very important early influence on me when I was about 17 was C.S. Lewis. – Tanith Lee
I never know where I am going, though. That is part of what makes it so wonderful. And after all, who does? – Tanith Lee
I also love Disney, and will defend doing so, because there’s so much in those films and I don’t care if it’s stereotyped. – Tanith Lee
I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of normal work. – Tanith Lee
I love writers all across the board, but one who influenced me very directly at the beginning was Mary Renault. – Tanith Lee
I just love writing. It’s magical, it’s somewhere else to go, it’s somewhere much more dreadful, somewhere much more exciting. Somewhere I feel I belong, possibly more than in the so-called real world. – Tanith Lee
People are always the start for me… animals, when I can get into their heads, gods, supernatural beings, immortals, the dead… these are all people to me. – Tanith Lee
Writing is writing, and stories are stories. Perhaps the only true genres are fiction and non-fiction. And even there, who can be sure? – Tanith Lee
I’m writing what comes into my head, or through me, or from somewhere else, and it is the most extraordinary, exciting thing. I love it, and I’m very greedy, and I really enjoy it! – Tanith Lee
I like writing about women, weak and strong, pathetic and heroic. I like writing about men, ditto. And all the variants of men and women, beasts and demons. – Tanith Lee
If they had said my writing wasn’t good enough, fair enough, that’s an opinion. But to say it’s too complex is to insult the intelligence of the so-called young. – Tanith Lee
Writers tell stories better, because they’ve had more practice, but everyone has a book in them. Yes, that old cliche. – Tanith Lee
As a child, my mother told me lots of fairy stories, many her own invention. She, too, tended to reverse the norm. – Tanith Lee
