Quotes from Keri Hulme

I have a grasshopper and haphazard mind y'know, a brain that listens to all sorts of things as well as itself.

I am worn, down to the raw nub of my soul. Now is the time, o bitter beer, soothe my spirit; smooth mouth of whisky, tell me lies of truth; but better still, sweet wine, be harbinger of deep and dreamless sleep....

There really is no place like home, even when it's grown a couple of sizes too small...

Co-eye, kor-fie, alla same tree. . . . That's part of a poem, believe it or not. These are seeds of a tree, golden seeds for golden flowers.

What does he mean by disgraceful propensities?" "Weelll, I should imagine in that ingrown aristocracy it could mean anything from an improper preference for scotch whisky, to a practiced predilection for raping the cat." He chokes on his coffee.

Betelgeuse, Achenar. Orion. Aquila. Centre the Cross and you have a steady compass. But there's no compass for my ever disoriented soul, only ever beckoning ghost lights. In the one sure direction, to the one sure end.

Wars of small kingdoms and forgotten lands, what do chessmen dream of in the dark?

She has this curious heavy grace, like something out of its element making do in a heavier medium. Like she should be living in water.

The company you keep at death is, of all things, most dependent on chance.