Joanne Michèle Sylvie Harris MBE (born 3 July 1964, Barnsley, Yorkshire) is an acclaimed British author, famous for writing the award-winning novel Chocolat which was later turned into a highly successful film. Read full biography of Joanne Harris →
I have a tendency to pick up my own challenges. The more difficult something it is, the more I want to try it.
I like literature that you respond to in some way. You laugh, you cry, you turn the light on - that's great, it's eliciting a response by... →
I've nothing against kids reading anything they please, but I do have a problem with pink books for girls and black books for boys.
Of course I didn't pioneer the use of food in fiction: it has been a standard literary device since Chaucer and Rabelais, who used food... →
I'm insatiably curious.
I'm not fond of cities: the constant activity and swarms of people.
I'm not sure I believe in the whole 'ghost-afterlife' thing, but I think places are marked by people who have been there.
I'm phobic about the idea of being constrained.
I tend to write about more than one generation because as a child I had contact with more than one generation; it was normal to be around older... →
If you can actually get someone to sit on the edge of their seat and feel nervous if there's a knock at the door, then you've done something... →
It may be something to do with my having been to a girls' school, but I'm far more comfortable making male friendships than female ones. My... →
My parents were language teachers. They talked about teaching all the time and all their friends were teachers. It was considered a pre-ordained... →
When I write, I'm constantly putting myself in the position of someone else as I write using myriad voices; I think that's a life skill all... →
Joanne Michèle Sylvie Harris MBE (born 3 July 1964, Barnsley, Yorkshire) is an acclaimed British author, famous for writing the award-winning novel Chocolat which was later turned into a highly successful film.