Great quotes and what they mean...

I've recently received some feedback from Sarah Waters about my upcoming novel 'The Palace of Curiosities'. Reading it is a bizarre sensation: disbelief mixed with tingling excitement. It's a good quote. An astonishingly good quote.

I've been sitting on it for a couple of months. I've been asking myself why I haven't been shouting it from the rooftops. What should I do with quotes like this one? Paste them over Twitter and Facebook? But of course, says my Inner Publicist. You'd be insane not to. You should be proud that a brilliant writer likes your work and has taken the time to say so. Well yes – I'm not a complete fool, nor am I weighed down with the sort of modesty which is as fake as a tan wipe.

I treasure Sarah's quote. It's amazing. But I am also aware that it's about my writing and not about me. Heaven forefend that I should ever become one of those folk with exceedingly high opinions of themselves who look down their noses at the mere mortals grovelling far below (we've all met 'em). You are hereby permitted to slap me hard if I ever show signs of heading in that direction.

Neither is her quote about every word I have written or will write. It's about this one novel. It's not permission to lean back on my laurels and scribble any old thing and chuck it at a publisher with a casual 'f*ck it, it'll do'.

So I shall keep my feet firmly planted on planet Earth.

Oh, and this is the quote.

"The Palace of Curiosities is a jewel-box of a novel, with page after page, scene after scene, layer after layer of treats and surprises. Garland is a real literary talent: definitely an author to watch."

Thank you, Sarah. Like you cannot imagine.