Sarah Waters (born 21 July 1966) is a Welsh novelist. She is best known for her novels set in Victorian society and featuring lesbian protagonists, such as Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith. Read full biography of Sarah Waters →
Ours is a world which feels so unsettled and dangerous in large ways, whether it's terrorism or global financial meltdown or climate change -... →
All I can do is write about whatever grabs me.
I do love the past but wouldn't want to live in it.
I knew I'd always be a second-rate academic, and I thought, 'Well, I'd rather be a second-rate novelist or even a third-rate one'.
I love film and, particularly, shorts. You don't get to see them often, and they're a great little form, like a short story.
I never expected my books to do even as well as they have. I still feel grateful for it, every single day.
I used to hate flying. I would sit there, rigid, convinced that if I relaxed, the plane would drop out of the sky.
I used to write at home, but it didn't ever occur to me to be a writer.
I wouldn't mind being a fly on the wall in a few Victorian parlours.
I'm interested in stories that aren't getting told: it's where my interests lie.
I've ended up feeling fonder of 'The Paying Guests' than of any of my other novels.
I've never managed to get very far with Henry James.
It was a great childhood. We weren't especially wealthy or anything, but I felt I had a kind of safety and freedom.
Sarah Waters (born 21 July 1966) is a Welsh novelist. She is best known for her novels set in Victorian society and featuring lesbian protagonists, such as Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith.