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Quotes by New-zealander Authors

"Looking back, I imagine I was always writing. Twaddle it was too. But better far write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all."

"Life never becomes a habit to me. It's always a marvel."

"Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy, you can't build on it it's only good for wallowing in."

"That's always an interesting concept when you try to make your dream into a reality and you come up against the facts of exactly what it is you're attempting to do."

"It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves."

"I don't think I prefer writing for one age group above another. I am just as pleased with a story which I feel works well for very small children as I do with a story for young adults."

"The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books."

"And I think the rolling polls put more pressure on them to sustain their beliefs and to improve their delivery of the policy and their delivery of the ideas so that they can garner support for whatever principle they're articulating."

"The images attempt to capture scientific thought. They represent the physical manifestation of the thought process. Everything in the laboratory is a product of a stream of conscious or unconscious thought."

"I knew that I could be more creative onstage, to state my own case and deliver my own interpretation of the role much more aggressively than in the recording studio."

"At this stage I am not involved with young adults as closely as many other writers. My children are grown up and my grandchildren are still quite young."

"We are taking a business-as-usual position at my agency, though business before 9/11 wasn't that hot either!"

"There's only so much you can do until you get on set and see the aesthetics of what you're dealing with. Then you see what the other players are giving to you. It's all about the transfer of energy between different actors."

"It's just a matter of understanding what's necessary and discipline yourself to do it."

"The real effect of the WTC calamity has been depressed spirits, anxiety, and uncertainty among publishers, and of course those emotions are not restricted to publishers."

"The Slave Trade, though nominally abolished, is actively pursued here, eighty-three slaves having been landed just before my arrival, and another cargo during my stay."

"By and large, women in New Zealand are fortunate compared with some other countries, including many in our own region. But there is still progress to be made."

"You have two choices when someone changes your work. You can either wash your hands of it or embrace it."

"Some couples go over their budgets very carefully every month. Others just go over them."

"There's a side of me that dislikes feminism. I think we surrendered something and women were unable to reveal any kind of vulnerability."

"I am inclined to think that eating is a private thing and should be done alone, like other bodily functions."

"Part of my plan was not only to introduce all useful animals that I possibly could into this part of Australia, but also the most valuable plants of every description."

"Sunrise offered a very beautiful spectacle; the water was quite unruffled, but the motion communicated by the tides was so great that, although there was not a breath of air stirring, the sea heaved slowly with a grand and majestic motion."

"It is a good idea to know which publishers publish which stories. For example, there is no sense in sending a picture book text to a publisher who does not publish picture books."


"I was on dialysis for 18 months before the transplant, so it was important I tried to look ahead to days like my comeback this Saturday. You need those big goals to drive you on."

"Those who kept their sanity and humanity intact in the face of awful adversity. Heroes named and unnamed, some known only to God."

"I'm a dreadful romantic. No matter what I go through in life, I want to fall in love with a man."

"We are forced by the major publishers to include electronic rights in the contracts we make with publishers for new books. And there's very little we can do about that."

"When I work, I try to eat as much vegetarian as possible. When I do Cupid, I eat vegetarian because I need the energy. I've got those wings on my back."

"Again, we turn down most books that have been self-published unless they have a special track record. We have taken a small number on, however, and sold them to major publishers for a nice sum. But that is an exception to the rule."

"Of all created comforts, God is the lender; you are the borrower, not the owner."


"When I was playing I felt tired all the time. My recovery period was a lot longer than the other players. They'd be ok after an hour - I'd have to stay in bed till the next session."

"Sometimes I think I am still that 5-year-old girl playing with her dogs in the yard. That's how I see myself."


"I was this guy who'd been racing around down there, on that field in 1999, running straight over people, scoring tries, winning games, having fun. And I ended up so sick I couldn't even run past a little baby."

"I really wish we could stay longer in the countries we visit, but I've been lucky to have visited most of them before, because I've done a tremendous amount of travel."

"Anyone interested in the world generally can't help being interested in young adult culture - in the music, the bands, the books, the fashions, and the way in which the young adult community develops its own language."

"We sing these songs for the everyday occasions of life, and they are very close to the hearts of our people."

"The world is full of novels in which characters simply say and do. There are certainly legitimate genres in which this is sufficient. But in real and lasting writing the character is."

"From the first place of liquid darkness, within the second place of air and light, I set down the following record with its mixture of fact and truths and memories of truths and its direction toward the Third Place, where the starting point is myth."

"We in the west are seen as godless, as greedy and as uncaring about the suffering of those in the developing world."

"In all science, error precedes the truth, and it is better it should go first than last."

"On embarking to return we could perceive no sign of One Tree Island; and as we swept down towards the sea the leafy top of a tree seen in the clear water under the boat was the only evidence of its existence; though a few hours ago it had formed so prominent an object."

"New Zealand's taken some very significant decisions in relation to defence in the last two years."

"It took me a long time, but I don't feel as anxious about stupid things anymore - or perhaps they've just been replaced by more complicated stupid things."

"At the same time, I think books create a sort of network in the reader's mind, with one book reinforcing another. Some books form relationships. Other books stand in opposition. No two writers or readers have the same pattern of interaction."

"I want to be all that I am capable of becoming."
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