Eleanor Catton The Luminaries Quotes

#1. Pritchard was lonely, and like most lonely souls, he saw happy couples everywhere.

Eleanor Catton

#2. There's nothing quite like the glorious serendipity of finding a book you didn't know you wanted to read.

Neil Gaiman

#3. That's what acting is - it's about ... having the courage to allow your audience into the private moments of your characters' lives.

Kerry Washington

#4. My second novel, 'The Luminaries,' is set in the New Zealand gold rushes of the 1860s, though it's not really a historical novel in the conventional sense. So far, I've been describing it as 'an astrological murder mystery.'

Eleanor Catton

#5. What on earth are you doing in Paris?" I asked.
"Bertie, old man," said Biffy solemnly, "I came here to try and forget."
"Well, you've certainly succeeded.

P.G. Wodehouse

#6. An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.

Walter Bagehot

#7. What an unrequited love it is, this thirst! But is it love, when it is unrequited?

Eleanor Catton

#8. From the very beginning, I had an ambition for 'The Luminaries': a direction - but not a real idea.

Eleanor Catton

#9. You're of a mind with Mr. Staines.'
'Am I?'
'Yes,' Anna said. 'That is precisely the sort of thing that he would say.'
'Your Mr. Staines is quite the philosopher, Miss Wetherell.'
'Why, Reverend,' Anna said, smiling suddenly, 'I believe you've just paid yourself a compliment.

Eleanor Catton

#10. In researching 'The Luminaries,' I did read quite a lot of 20th-century crime. My favourites out of that were James M. Cain, Dassiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Graham Greene and Patricia Highsmith.

Eleanor Catton

#11. But could he endure it, that other men knew her in a way that he, Staines, did not? He did not know.

Eleanor Catton

#12. What I wanted to create with 'The Luminaries' is a book that had structural patterns built in that didn't matter, but if you cared about them, you could look into the book and see them.

Eleanor Catton

#13. 'The Luminaries' is such a different book to 'The Rehearsal.' There are only a couple of things that link the two books: there's a certain preoccupation with looking at relationships from the outside, being shut out of human intimacy; and then there's patterning.

Eleanor Catton

#14. You can use words if you wish, but I'm warning you - I've learned how to read your heart ...

John Geddes

#15. Has he made an avowal of his love?'
'No,' Anna said. 'He doesn't need to. I know it, just the same.

Eleanor Catton

#16. It's not vague,' Anna said. 'I'm certain of it. Just as when you're certain you did have a dream ... you knew you dreamed ... but you can't remember any of the details.

Eleanor Catton

#17. And the hermit's spirit detaches itself, ever so gently, and begins its lonely passage upward, to find its final resting place among the stars.

Eleanor Catton

#18. I think Star City should have Unesco World Heritage status. It will need to be adapted a little bit and made more glamorous than it looks now, but it should definitely be protected for the future.

Valentina Tereshkova

#19. When I was writing 'The Luminaries,' I read a lot of crime novels because I wanted to figure out which ones made me go, 'Ah! I didn't know that was coming!'

Eleanor Catton

#20. All green was anished sae of pine and yew, That still displayed their melancholy hue; Sae the green holly with its berries red, And the green moss that o'er the grael spread.

George Crabbe

#21. Is it the smoke?' the boy said, shivering slightly. 'I've never touched the stuff, myself, but how it claws at one ... like a thorn in every one of your fingers, and a string around your heart ... and one fees it always. Nagging. Nagging.

Eleanor Catton

#22. How would I overlook the name Moody? Why, that's like overlooking Hanover, or - or Plantagenet.'
The woman laughed. 'I would hardly compare Adrian Moody to a royal line!

Eleanor Catton

#23. Actually, I'm hoping we might have that. A commitment through time, past, present, future... marriage.

Amy Tan

#24. There is no such thing as neutrality where the gospel is concerned.

Bruce R. McConkie

#25. Love should be your top priority, primary objective, and greatest ambition. Love is not a good part of your life; it's the most important part. The Bible says, Let love be your greatest aim.

Rick Warren

#26. I never feel like I'm the guy that's got all the answers.

Rick Heinrichs