Paullina Simons
Paullina Simons
Paullina Simonsis a Russian-born American writer and the international best-selling author of the novels Tully, Red Leaves, Eleven Hours, The Bronze Horseman, Tatiana and Alexander, Lily and The Summer Garden...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionWriter
CountryRussian Federation
soldier alive welcome
Thank you," she whispered, "for keeping yourself alive, soldier." "You're welcome," he whispered back.
arms way helping
And then, because she was Tatiana and because she couldn’t help herself, and because he wouldn’t have it any other way, she ran to him and was in his arms.
heart hands fire
You are my hand grenade, my artillery fire. You have replaced my heart with yourself.
summer falling-in-love love-you
Falling in love with you in the Summer Garden in the white nights in Leningrad is the moment that propels me through life.
thinking way united-states
I tend to be a great optimist when it comes to the United States and the American way of life, I think precisely because I wasn't born into it.
writing years wish
I wish I could spend six years writing one novel.
growing-up book favourite
When I was growing up, 'Anna Karenina' was one of my favourite books.
writing two knowing
I have a certain sensibility that I bring to my writing that comes from knowing two things: what I as a reader like to read, and what as a writer I am capable of. I know my own limits. I know there are things I cannot do.
book heart thinking
There is a very definite Russian heart in me; that never dies. I think you're born and you live your life with it and you die with it. I'm very much an American - my books tend to be about American things, but inside there's that sort of tortured, long-suffering, aching, constantly analysing Russian soul underneath the happy American exterior.
mean writing forget-you
With my writing, because I live it, I have to be consumed by it, and that means you have to forget your other life, which is constantly pulling you from your work.
love-is return said
Love is, to be loved,” said Alexander, “in return.
writing mind care
You have to keep your audience in your mind; if you're writing stuff that you know nobody's going to care about then you should rethink what you're doing!
lying war men
War was the ultimate chaos, a pounding, soul-destroying snarl, ending in blown-apart men lying unburied on the cold earth. There was nothing more cosmically chaotic than war.
gone idealism left
The days of idealism had gone. Only life was left.