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Eleanor Catton Quotes
Eleanor Catton Quotes
Eleanor Catton
New Zealander
Author
Born:
Sep 24
,
1985
Books
Me
People
Think
Time
You
Related authors:
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
C. S. Lewis
Frederick Douglass
George Orwell
Helen Keller
Henry David Thoreau
Mark Twain
Zig Ziglar
Fiction is supposed to be immersive and supposed to be entertaining and narrative, so structures have to be buried a little bit. If they come foregrounded too much, it stops being fiction and starts being poetry - something more concrete and out of time.
Eleanor Catton
Time
Too Much
Starts
Too
Bit
Out
Out Of Time
Entertaining
Something
More
Structures
Poetry
Come
Supposed
Narrative
Concrete
Buried
Stops
Being
Fiction
Little
Little Bit
Much
Often I listen to songs on repeat for days and days at a time. There's something hypnotic or meditative, and it mirrors the way that I am putting the sentence together, going back over the same phrases again and again.
Eleanor Catton
Time
Together
Back
Way
Phrases
Something
Mirrors
Hypnotic
Songs
Putting
Over
Days
Am
Repeat
Same
Going
Listen
Often
Again
Sentence
The readership of Victorian novels, when they were published, was much less diverse. People were probably white, and had enough money to be literate. Very often, there are phrases in Italian, German and French that are left untranslated.
Eleanor Catton
People
Money
White
Enough
Enough Money
Phrases
Diverse
Had
Had Enough
French
Readership
Were
Italian
Left
German
Very
Often
Literate
Victorian
Much
Less
Novels
Published
The way that I see astrology is as a repository of thought and psychology. A system we've created as a culture as way to make things mean things.
Eleanor Catton
Culture
Thought
Way
Astrology
System
See
Make
Repository
Psychology
Mean
Created
Things
A trip to the picture framer's, with a selection of prints, is the most joyous outing I can imagine. I've spent more money on framing than on anything else I own.
Eleanor Catton
Money
Picture
Own
Else
Framing
Spent
Trip
Outing
More
Selection
Most
Joyous
Prints
Than
Anything
Anything Else
Imagine
The zodiac is a system a person can play with and see meaning in.
Eleanor Catton
System
See
Person
Meaning
Play
I don't feel like literature has the power to alienate. I think that's something people feel if they don't connect with a work of art. But I don't think a work of art can actively reject the person who's looking at it or reading it.
Eleanor Catton
Work
Art
People
Power
Looking
Reading
Think
Alienate
Something
Something People
Feel
Like
Person
Literature
Connect
Actively
Reject
I believe really strongly in imitation, actually: I think it's the first place you need to go to if you're going to be able to understand how something works. True mimicry is actually quite difficult.
Eleanor Catton
You
First
Believe
Difficult
Think
Imitation
Able
Strongly
Something
True
First Place
Understand
How
Go
Going
Quite
Place
Really
Works
Actually
Need
I'm the rogue Canadian in my family - I just happened to be born here while my parents were studying here.
Eleanor Catton
Family
Parents
Born
Studying
Were
Rogue
Canadian
Just
Happened
While
Here
In my experience, and that of a lot of other women writers, all of the questions coming at them from interviewers tend to be about how lucky they are to be where they are - about luck and identity and how the idea struck them.
Eleanor Catton
Women
Experience
Luck
Other
About
Struck
Tend
Writers
Idea
Identity
How
Coming
Lot
Questions
Women Writers
Where
Them
Lucky
The ability of humans to read meaning into patterns is the most defining characteristic we have.
Eleanor Catton
Defining
Characteristic
Ability
Most
Read
Patterns
Meaning
Humans
I think that's what fiction writing is actually all about. It's about trying to solve problems in creative ways.
Eleanor Catton
Creative
Writing
Problems
Think
Ways
Solve
About
Trying
Fiction
Fiction Writing
Creative Ways
Actually
I really wanted to write an adventure story, a murder-mystery that was set during the gold-rush years in New Zealand.
Eleanor Catton
Write
Adventure
New
Years
Wanted
New Zealand
Story
Really
Zealand
Set
I highlight everything I find interesting, and then type out everything I've highlighted, and then print out everything I've typed, and reread these printed notes as often as possible.
Eleanor Catton
Type
Typed
Everything
Out
Possible
Find
Highlight
Print
Printed
Often
Interesting
Notes
Then
It is less fun to talk about what I am feeling rather than what I am thinking. Saying 'I feel awesome' isn't really interesting or enquiring.
Eleanor Catton
Saying
Feeling
Awesome
Thinking
About
Rather
Feel
Talk
Am
Than
Interesting
Really
Less
Fun
I often feel intellectually frustrated when I'm in a position where I'm not moving forward; when I'm not enquiring about something.
Eleanor Catton
Moving Forward
About
Something
Feel
Intellectually
Often
Where
Frustrated
Moving
Forward
Position
Any description of a person that comes from the outside is very hard to deal with. People don't like being summarised. It's nice to receive a compliment, but it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable.
Eleanor Catton
Me
People
Nice
Bit
Compliment
Uncomfortable
Outside
Feel
Like
Deal
Makes
Very
Person
Any
Being
Hard
Description
Receive
I think that writers of literary fiction would do well to read more books for children.
Eleanor Catton
Think
Books
Would
More
Writers
Well
Read
Children
Fiction
Literary
Literary Fiction
The books that really made an impact on me were not set in New Zealand. Some were New Zealand novels, but the New Zealandness of them was not what carried me or excited me.
Eleanor Catton
Me
Made
Books
Carried
Impact
Some
Excited
New
Were
New Zealand
Them
Really
Novels
Zealand
Set
There are so many ways of posturing that people associate with being a writer. They imagine you wearing a beret and drinking only red wine and being full of yourself, and so, for a long time, the way I felt about writing was too private. I felt it too important and didn't want to be teased about it. So I lied about it.
Eleanor Catton
Time
You
Yourself
People
Writing
Wine
Long
Drinking
Long Time
Important
Too
Way
Ways
Lied
Wearing
About
Only
Writer
Red
Red Wine
Felt
Private
Being
Want
Full
Many
Teased
Associate
Imagine
I much prefer a plotted novel to a novel that is really conceptual.
Eleanor Catton
Conceptual
Prefer
Much
Really
Novel
I had never read Victorian novels before going overseas. I read a handful of authors, but I had not immersed myself in the literature of the 19th century.
Eleanor Catton
Myself
Before
Immersed
Never
Had
Read
Overseas
Handful
Authors
Going
Literature
Victorian
Century
Novels
You can tell when a writer moves out of a place of struggle and into a place of comfort, and it's always a bad thing.
Eleanor Catton
You
Struggle
Out
Tell
Bad
Bad Thing
Writer
Comfort
Always
Moves
Place
Thing
Is the prestige conferred by the Man Booker prize for the book or me? I would prefer it on the book and for me to be treated ordinarily.
Eleanor Catton
Me
Man
Book
Prestige
Would
Prize
Conferred
Ordinarily
Prefer
Treated
Teaching is a great complement to writing. It's very social and gets you out of your own head. It's also very optimistic. It renews itself every year - it's a renewable resource.
Eleanor Catton
Great
You
Writing
Year
Own
Every
Complement
Resource
Out
Head
Also
Renewable
Itself
Very
Optimistic
Gets
Social
Your
Teaching
It seems pretentious to assume that we are not creatures of action. I think often it takes a situation of extreme absurdity, extreme action, to push us to the limits of what our character is, and to change us as people.
Eleanor Catton
Character
Change
People
Pretentious
Situation
Action
Think
Assume
Our
Extreme
Seems
Push
Takes
Absurdity
Limits
Often
Us
Creatures
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