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Quotes by New-zealander Authors
"The government's objective, broadly expressed, is that all persons, whatever their level of ability, whether they live in town or country, have a right as citizens to a free education of the kind for which they are best fitted and to the fullest extent of their powers."
"It's always a mistake for writers to key their submissions to world events, because they move so quickly and unpredictably, as has certainly proven the case in Afghanistan."
"I am really chained to my computer these days so I work in my bedroom, which is a room I have worked in for years and years. It is just as much an office as a bedroom, and during the day, my bed is rather like an extension of my desk."
"Too often the desire for peace has been expressed by women while the stewardship of the mechanisms which are used to attempt to secure peace in the short and medium term are dominated by male decision-making structures and informal arrangements. This must change."
"My theory is that I decided to be a writer when I was about seven, but of course it is not as simple as that. Like most writers, I had to work at other things to earn a living and wrote mainly in the evenings, often very late at night, for many years."
"And if you're getting a poll coming out month after month saying something and then all of a sudden does an enormous swing in one direction - you are dealing with a more volatile electorate than most people believe they have."
"Of course there are big differences in length and character and vocabulary, but each level has its particular pleasures when it comes to the words one can use and the way one uses them."
"When I was a child I had a best friend who lived across the road from me. When her mother died unexpectedly it was like losing a member of my own family. I think I am still affected by the memory of that loss."
"Love has the quality of informing almost everything - even one's work."
"There is no glory in war, yet from the blackness of its history, there emerge vivid colours of human character and courage. Those who risked their lives to help their friends."
"I think I am too interested in my own ideas to copy anyone else's, but I find that other people's imagery, the flow of language in the outside world, games with words, and ideas about relationships are all most important to me."
"Very often the law of extremity demands an attention to irrelevance."
"I love men. They are intelligent and sensitive, but there's also that hard-edged arrogant side, which is just so attractive."
"New Zealanders who emigrate to Australia raise the IQ of both countries."
"So to that extent that was a very sharp reminder a few months out from the election that we weren't performing in the eyes of the public to the level that they wanted if they were going to re-elect us. So we went out and were much more upfront on issues."
"As the blackness of the night recedes so does the nadir of yesterday. The child I am forgets so quickly."
"If only one could tell true love from false love as one can tell mushrooms from toadstools."
"In front of us lay a smooth sandy beach, beyond which rose gradually a high wooded country, and behind us was the sea, studded with numerous islands of every variety of form."
"I see the great continuities in New Zealand history as being decency and common sense and up until now when we've confronted these things we've been able to talk them through, and I'm sure we will with this issue as well."
"New Zealand is the only country I know well enough to write about. It can sometimes lead to complications."
"Electricity, the peril the wind sings to in the wires on a gray day."
"I have no problem selling books to media franchises and we do it all the time. The author must understand that he/she is a writer for hire and has no control over copyright or over editorial changes made to the text."
"I'd like to open an animal orphanage in Kenya. I do a lot of work for Born Free."
"Schools that are to cater for the whole population must offer courses that are as rich and varied as are the needs and abilities of the children who enter them."
"Right-wing media and politicians are looking for any opportunity to be critical of the reporters who are here. Some reporters make judgments, but that is not my style. I present both sides and report what I see with my own eyes."
"Most horror films fail to scare me. I think "The Ring" plays more as a psychological thriller. It's smarter, there's more character development and some of the themes explored go a little deeper."
"What I have learned from my work up to now, is to try to be open, but also protect myself by not letting the good and the evil get too much importance."
"The domination of western values, beliefs and way of life has angered many from the east and in developing countries."
"Yes, I'm afraid the life over here is very different from N.Z. but oh boy it's a grand life."
"In a still hot morning, the tide went out and didn't come back in. This was not a spectacular event. The sea did not roll up like a scroll, like the sky in Revelations. It quietly withdrew."
"It is important to remember that the Pacific Ocean covers a quarter of the world's surface and that each Pacific country has its own cultural, historical and ethnic identity."
"There is one major problem with anti-virus software: It needs updating. Users cannot be relied upon to have even the anti-virus software in the first place, let alone be able or willing to pay for the updates."
"The quest for peace begins in the home, in the school and in the workplace."
"I'd like to say from the beginning that the 12 years I've been coming here, I've met unfailing courtesy and cooperation, courtesy from your people and cooperation from the Ministry of Information."
"We don't want to deal with a separatist party."
"Big media companies have lots of money and content, but they have no way to tap into a good base of users."
"The truth is that I am enslaved... in one vast love affair with 70 children."
"The rights of the individual are greatly prized in the developed world, but in many other regions they are considered a luxury reserved for the impossibly wealthy."
"For your own good is a persuasive argument that will eventually make a man agree to his own destruction."
"The Open Skies issue is something that's ongoing and we understand that there are issues in Australia that need to be sorted out. It's something that I think over time there's an opportunity for us and we'll work on that in a progressive way."
"Would you love a man of a broken shell after the passing of a women's soul?"
"The fidelity question is difficult for me. Society has made us believe we're supposed to be monogamous when we're not killer whales, or whatever the monogamous species is."
"Happiness comes from... some curious adjustment to life."
"I stayed away from mirrors when I was younger and I didn't like having my picture taken. I was tall and had braces and felt ugly."
"This part of Brazil offered the curious spectacle of a great evil, which has been long suffered to exist and is now advancing, gradually yet surely, to that state which must entail inevitable destruction on the existing Government of the country."
"President Bush says he is concerned about the Iraqi people, but if Iraqi people are dying in numbers, then American policy will be challenged very strongly."
"Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the factories, the streets, the cathedrals of the imagination."
"After all, just one virus on a computer is one too many."
"They meant abnormal. Divisions of the kind were fashionable at that time, and it was so easy to stifle one's need to help by deciding that help could neither be accepted nor understood."
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