“I always felt that sci-fi and fantasy were my thing. Bit of a geek, I'...” — Samantha Shannon Quote

I always felt that sci-fi and fantasy were my thing. Bit of a geek, I'm afraid. But I like creating worlds, and I felt it was a genre that gave me more freedom. It just seemed like I belonged there.

What I like about Oxford is how small it is; it's really more of a big town than a city.

In 2011, I did an internship in Seven Dials, a junction in London where seven roads come together. I'd given up on writing after multiple rejections for my first novel, and I was starting to consider a career in publishing instead, but Seven Dials gave me such a strong idea for a setting that I couldn't resist picking up my pen again.

'The Bone Season' is violent. There's sex. My little brother keeps asking to read it, and he's 9, so I'm like, 'No, it's not happening.'

It's not that people want to be like me, but some want to say the things I say and can't because they're afraid. I say it for them.

If you're afraid to fail, then you're probably going to fail.

'Extraordinary' is an original fairy tale, a contemporary story. But like a traditional fairy tale, it heads quickly into frightening, bloody territory. I am afraid for my book, as it goes out alone into the world, just as I was frightened for Phoebe as I wrote and rewrote her story.

There's such a good vibe in Minneapolis. You've got an upscale downtown, and yet people aren't afraid to sit around the fire pit in the middle of winter and drink a beer. It's amazing.