Sara Zarr

Sara Zarr
Sara Zarris an American writer. She was raised in San Francisco, and now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband. Her first novel, Story of a Girl, was a 2007 National Book Award finalist. She is also the author of Sweethearts and Once Was Lost. All three are published by Little, Brown...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionYoung Adult Author
Date of Birth3 October 1970
CountryUnited States of America
hope people since
The characters are whole, real people to me that I'm getting to know, and since real people are all flawed, so are my characters, I hope.
felt life people
I always felt that church is where I'm going to find my community and people to live my life with.
two people together
What brings two people together anyway?
differences people your-boyfriend
we had each other. I never needed anyone else. That’s the difference between you and me. You need all these people around you. Your friends, your boyfriend, everyone. Every single person has to like you. I only ever needed one person. Only ever needed you.
people mark
Some people come into your life and leave a mark.
thinking years people
I wouldn't say I'm stuck in my adolescence, but I think, like a lot of people, I carry my teen years with me. I feel really in touch with those feelings, and how intense and complicated life seems in those years.
people perfect romance
Family or love or romance, whatever it is, is not restricted to perfect people. If it were, it wouldn't exist. All of that comes out in my work in some way.
color people together
Can it really be love if we don't talk that much, don't see each other? Isn't love something that happens between people who spend time together and know each other's faults and take care of each other?...In the end, I decide that the mark we've left on each other is the color and shape of love.
good knowledge mind neutral patterns recognize recurring terms work
Is it good, bad, or neutral to recognize thematic patterns in your own work? When it comes to recurring themes, I'm of the mind that knowledge is probably not power, at least in terms of the work.
craft please reader trying
I'm so focused on trying to craft the story that I'm in my own little world with it and that process. The one reader I'm trying to please as I write is me, and I'm pretty difficult to please.
characters finished needed reader rewarding says school tells until
When a young reader tells you that they'd never finished a book outside of school until they read yours, or that they really needed to hear something that one of your characters says or thinks... that's just rewarding and humbling.
discipline good maybe played
I played the clarinet, and my sister played the violin... If we'd had the discipline and the passion, maybe we could have been good.
I don't want to pretend like I'm some intellectual person who understands Flannery O'Connor.
asking characters leading letting lives questions seeing takes unfold
When my characters are questioning things, it's not me leading up to an answer; it's me asking those same questions and letting the characters' lives unfold and seeing where it takes them.