Andrea Barrett Quotes

I'm not a huge fan of research, but sometimes you get an idea, and then you realize you don't know anything.

I love researching. That's one of my favorite parts about school.

I read round the subject, I make a skeleton outline, and then I start work in the relevant archives. During the marshaling of the material, I copy the material from each archive file across to the relevant chapter in the skeleton outline.

I'm not fascinated by one particular case, but by knowledge that I had no idea was out there.

In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand.

Sometimes you read something, and you have to read more and more about the background.

I always like learning the small details about a subject.

When I don't know the answer to something, I write a book about it because it gives me a chance to explore it and go to some people who do have the answers.

When I read period material - and it ain't on Google - I am always alert for that one incredible detail. I'll read a whole book and get three words out of it, but they'll be three really good words.

I love doing research.

I think with every book you realize you are partway through and there is something really elementary that you should have researched.

Science is fun. Science is curiosity. We all have natural curiosity. Science is a process of investigating. It's posing questions and coming up with a method. It's delving in.

Between 2 and 5 I'm reading in to find out what's been going on while I've been asleep.

I feel like if you read something, and it makes you so curious about a topic that you then go read something else, that's exciting.

What is research but a blind date with knowledge?

I had been writing for about twelve years. I knew pretty well how you could find things out, but I had never been trained in an academic way how to go about the research.

When I'm working on historical books, I'm much more organized. I usually read about 100 books to get the depth of knowledge I need.

I really enjoy researching, and for almost every piece, I research enough to write a book.

Science is about filling in the details.

I think fondly of the rabbit holes I disappeared down when I researched papers for history and English because I couldn't find quite what I was looking for, or because I had to go through so much material to find examples for my thesis.

Research is creating new knowledge.

When you are studying from a book, lots of people go straight to the end to look for the answers. But that's not my style. For me, the most enjoyable part is the puzzle, the process of solving, not the solution itself.

I think I'm a terrible researcher. I find it very boring and frustrating, but the things you can find are better than what I could imagine. And when you find them, it's wonderful, and they don't feel artificial.

After writing fiction for so long, I like the discovery element of nonfiction, in the sense that when you find the right information, it feels like gold.

Where we go depends on what we know, and what we know depends on where we go.