26 Geraldine Brooks Quotes for You to Enjoy

Geraldine Brooks

Australian Journalist

Born: Sep 14, 1955

Down Me People Think Time You

Related authors: Ambrose Bierce Dave Barry Erma Bombeck Hunter S. Thompson Mignon McLaughlin Walter Cronkite William F. Buckley, Jr. William Lloyd Garrison

You can't write about the past and ignore religion. It was such a fundamental, mind-shaping, driving force for pre-modern societies. I'm very interested in what religion does to us - its capacity to create love and empathy or hatred and violence. Geraldine Brooks

I think that you can honour the sacrifices of a common soldier without glorifying war. Geraldine Brooks

War You Think Soldier Honour Sacrifices Glorifying Without Common

We are not the only animal that mourns; apes do, and elephants, and dogs. Yet we are the only one that tortures. Geraldine Brooks

Animal Only Dogs Ape Elephants

I had been afraid of breast cancer, as I suspect most women are, from the time I hit adolescence. At that age, when our emerging sexuality is our central preoccupation, the idea of disfigurement of a breast is particularly horrifying. Geraldine Brooks

Yes, the small village that we live in, in Virginia, is a very interesting place, in terms of its Civil War history, because it was a town that was founded by Quakers in 1733. Geraldine Brooks

War History Live Virginia Civil Civil War Small Town Quakers Terms Because Yes Very Place Interesting Interesting Place Village Founded

Because I worked as a newspaper reporter for about 14 years before attempting my first novel, I learned to write under almost any circumstances- by candle light, in longhand, in African villages where there was no power, under shelling in Kurdistan. Geraldine Brooks

Light Power First Before Circumstances About Write Attempting Almost Longhand Learned Because Years Reporter Any Any Circumstances Candle African Where Newspaper Newspaper Reporter Worked Novel Villages

When you're writing non-fiction, you go as far as you can go, and then ethically you have to stop. You can't go. You can't suppose. You can't imagine. And I think there's something in human nature that wants to finish the story. Geraldine Brooks

Nature You Writing Human Nature Think Something Finish Suppose Non-Fiction Go Human Stop As Far As Wants Story Far Then Ethically Imagine

I write while my son is at school. At about 7:45 A.M., I walk him there, with the dogs, then walk them for another forty minutes or so, go home and chain myself to the desk a little before 9 A.M., and try not to be distracted until I hear my son plunge through the front door at about 3 P.M. Geraldine Brooks

Myself Home Son School Walk Try Before Distracted Plunge Minutes About Through Write Until Him Another Dogs Go Go Home Hear Front Front Door Door While Little Them Then Forty Chain Desk

Moral certainty can deafen people to any truth other than their own. Geraldine Brooks

Truth People Own Other Moral Than Any Certainty

My mother's family were full-on Irish Catholics - faith in an elaborate old fashioned, highly conservative and madly baroque style. I sort of fell out of the tribe over women's rights and social justice issues when I was just 13 years old. Geraldine Brooks

Faith Family Justice Rights Women Conservative Mother Old Style Tribe Out Madly Highly Over Fell Sort Catholics Issues Were Years Irish Just Elaborate Social Social Justice Full-On Baroque Old-Fashioned

The day in 2004 when the radiologist told me I had invasive cancer, I walked down the hospital corridor looking for a phone to call my husband, and I could almost see the fear coming toward me like a big, black shadow. Geraldine Brooks

'You've got mail!' exclaims the cheery automaton at America Online. The flag on the mailbox icon waves invitingly on my computer screen. For a second, I'm 10 years old again, waiting for the postman's whistle to slice the stillness of an Australian afternoon. Geraldine Brooks

If somebody from the past doesn't rise up from the grave and start talking to me, I haven't got a book. I have to hear that voice, the voice of the narrator. How she sounds will tell me who she is, and who she is will tell me how she will act - and that starts the plot in motion. Geraldine Brooks

And one of the things that I learned was you can't generalise at all about a woman in a veil. You can't think you know her story, because she will confound you over and over again. She may be an engineer or a diplomat or a doctor. Or she may be an unbelievable babe with bleached hair down to her waist. Geraldine Brooks

You Woman Doctor Engineer Will Hair Down Think One Of The Things Diplomat Unbelievable About Veil Over Know She Learned Because Waist May Story Again Confound Her Things Babe

So, you know, Nathaniel was my first child, born when I was 40, so, uh... And then in due course, he wanted a brother, and then I thought, 'Oh, that'll be bloody lucky!' So, we ended up adopting a beautiful boy who was then five years old, from Ethiopia. Geraldine Brooks

Beautiful You Old Thought First Brother Born Adopting He First Child Know Course Boy Due Years Up Bloody Five Child Ended Oh Wanted Then Ethiopia Who Lucky

There's just so many great stories in the past that you can know a little bit about, but you can't know it all, and that's where imagination can work. Geraldine Brooks

Work Great You Past Imagination Bit About Great Stories Know Just Where Stories In The Past Little Little Bit Many

Yes, it seems we've got this mutant gene in our human personality that makes us susceptible to this same kind of mistake over and over again. It's really uncanny how we build these beautiful multicultural edifices and then allow this switch to be flipped and everybody goes, 'Oh, the other, get them out of here.' Geraldine Brooks

Beautiful Mistake Personality Build Other Everybody Our Out Kind Mutant Gene Seems Allow Over Makes Got How Yes Get Susceptible Same Goes Human Oh Again Them Then Us Really Human Personality Multicultural Flipped Switch Here

I was a pretty delicate kid. Anything that was going around I'd get it and I'd generally get it much worse than other people, so I spent a lot of time out of school. Geraldine Brooks

Time People School Other Worse Spent Kid Out Pretty Delicate Generally Around Lot Than Get Going Anything Much

I swim in a sea of words. They flow around me and through me and, by a process that is not fully clear to me, some delicate hidden membrane draws forth the stuff that is the necessary condition of my life. Geraldine Brooks

It is my great good luck the words I use are English words, which means I live in a very old nation of open borders; a rich, deep, multi-layered, promiscuous universe, infused with Latin, German, French, Greek, Arabic and countless other tongues. Geraldine Brooks

Good Great Words Old Nation Rich Live Luck Universe Other Good Luck Latin Promiscuous Arabic Borders Open Countless French German Very Greek Which Means Use English Deep Tongues

When I write a word in English, a simple one, such as, say, 'chief,' I have unwittingly ushered a querulous horde into the room. The Roman legionary is there, shaking his cap, or head, and Andy Capp is there, slouching in his signature working man's headgear. Geraldine Brooks

Man Simple Word Say Signature Andy Shaking Write Head His Chief Roman Cap Room Working English

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