Susanna Kearsley Quotes

Canada, Novelist
January 17, 1966

Susanna Kearsley (born in Brantford, Ontario) is a New York Times best-selling Canadian novelist of historical fiction and mystery, as well as thrillers under the pen name Emma Cole. In 2014, she received Romance Writers of America's RITA Award for Best Paranormal Romance for The Firebird.

Writing is sometimes a balancing act between keeping things easily readable and being accurate.

Susanna Kearsley
When you say that you write romantic fiction, there are a lot of people who have an image in their mind of the 'bodice ripper.' It's the one term that most romantic fiction writers absolutely hate because it has no bearing on what people are writing.

Susanna Kearsley
- Writing
- Fiction
- Bearing

Men who watch, and say little, very often are much wiser than the men they serve.

Susanna Kearsley
- Men
- Say
- Watch
The best way to show an emotion is not through a character's words, but their smallest expressions - to take what an actor would visually do and try putting that down on the page for the reader to 'see.'

Susanna Kearsley
- Character
- Words
- Emotion
Readers in general are not fond of dialect, and I don't blame them. I've read books myself that I've had to put down because sounding out every speech gave me a headache.

Susanna Kearsley
- Blame
- Readers
- Dialect
The past can teach us, nurture us, but it cannot sustain us. The essence of life is change, and we must move ever forward or the soul will wither and die.

Susanna Kearsley
- Past
- Change
- Teach
I can have my day carefully planned, but if someone wakes up with a cough or a sniffle, then everything changes. Thinking quickly and adapting without grumbling are essential skills to learn, in my opinion.

Susanna Kearsley
- Opinion
- Skills
- Adapting
Romantic fiction, in the broader sense, can be any novel that has a love story somewhere in it. It can be a mystery or a historical novel, as long as it has this very strong romantic thread running through it.

Susanna Kearsley
- Story
- Romantic
- Mystery

But life, if nothing else, had taught her promises weren't always to be counted on, and what appeared at first a shining chance might end in bitter disappointment.

Susanna Kearsley
It's the pursuit of love and happiness that is the driving force of the romantic novel.

Susanna Kearsley
- Love
- Novel
- Pursuit