I live on my own, happily, and I've never wanted children, but it did occur to me one day that there's part of me in 'Torak' - he's a loner, I'm a loner - as there's part of me in 'Renn,' who's quite waspish. I think, in some senses, 'Torak' is the son I never had.

Michelle Paver

Categorized in : Me Day Son Children

Evil exists in us all, Torak. Some fight it. Some feed it. That's how it's always been.

Michelle Paver

fighting evil

A man crawls into a tomb to die. A boy crawls in to live. You think that's chance?

Michelle Paver

men boys thinking

How odd, that light should prevent one from seeing.

Michelle Paver

odd light should

Men like that - when they know they won't be found out - they will do anything.

Michelle Paver

found knows men

There's always a choice,' said Torak, and walked backward off the cliff.

Michelle Paver

cliffs choices said

Fear is the loneliest feeling. You can be in a throng of people, but if you're afraid, you're on your own.

Michelle Paver

ifs feelings people

Vengeance burns,Torak." said Fin-Kedinn as the river bore him away. "It burns your heart. It makes the pain worse. Dont let that happen to you.

Michelle Paver

pain heart rivers

Sometimes there's no warning. Nothing at all.

Michelle Paver

warning sometimes

When a wolf doesn't want to do something, they look really cute.

Michelle Paver

wolf look want cute

Indigenous people all over the world take quite a lot of trouble with their hair and their clothes.

Michelle Paver

clothes hair people world

Doing field trips rather than simply researching online allows me to experience the story from the point of view of my main character; you can't get that by sitting at a desk.

Michelle Paver

me you experience character

I didn't wake up one day and think, 'I'm not going to have children.' My mother was a housewife and brought up three children, so I just thought it would happen.

Michelle Paver

day wake-up mother children

Have you ever held a snake? They are so strong. You can see why there are so many myths about them: they are unlike any other creature. It's extraordinary how that little brain can keep everything moving in different directions.

Michelle Paver

snake you strong brain

It's the little details I love. How to fletch your arrows with owl feathers, because owls fly silently, so maybe your arrows will, too. How to carry fire in a piece of smouldering fungus wrapped in birchbark. These are the things which help a world come alive.

Michelle Paver

fly fire love world

I saw myself as a trailblazer in the 1980s as a female lawyer in the City. It was exciting, as women were outnumbered by men five to one. But while I had this sense of trailblazing, in reality, I wasn't pushing boundaries; it was just a personal myth I'd created, as I was doing a job I wasn't enjoying.

Michelle Paver

city myself women men

To experience the northern forest in the raw, I went to northern Finland and Lapland, travelling on horseback, and sleeping on reindeer skins in the traditional open-fronted Finnish laavu. I ate elk heart, reindeer and lingonberries, and tried out spruce resin: the chewing gum of the Stone Age.

Michelle Paver

forest experience age heart

I would love to live in the wilds of nowhere, and when writing 'Chronicles,' I would occasionally rent a cottage in the middle of nowhere that had no mobile reception, but I'm not about to move away from my family.

Michelle Paver

live family writing love

I think true wilderness can still be found, but it's hard to reach and dangerous when you get there, which is probably why it still exists.

Michelle Paver

true think you dangerous

The most remote place I've been to was in Greenland. I remember setting out for a solo hike from a small cabin, itself several hours' boat ride from the nearest settlement.

Michelle Paver

ride place boat remember

I talk to children in schools all over the world, and I've found that both boys and girls are fascinated by how hunter-gatherers manage to survive entirely on what's around them in their environment: trees, rocks, animals and plants.

Michelle Paver

plants survive children world