Eleanor Catton
Eleanor Catton
Eleanor Catton MNZMis a Canadian-born New Zealand author. Her second novel, The Luminaries, won the 2013 Man Booker Prize. In January 2015, she created a short-lived media storm in New Zealand when she made comments in an interview in India in which she was critical of "neo-liberal, profit-obsessed, very shallow, very money-hungry politicians who do not care about culture."...
NationalityNew Zealander
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth24 September 1985
giving wish human-nature
It is a feature of human nature to give what we most wish to receive.
past men fallen
A woman fallen has no future; a man risen has no past.
girl school loner
She is a loner, too bright for the slutty girls and too savage for the bright girls, haunting the edges and corners of the school like a sullen disillusioned ghost
adventure writing years
I really wanted to write an adventure story, a murder-mystery that was set during the gold-rush years in New Zealand.
teacher thinking greed
I vote far-left. I am frequently angered by corporate greed and think education ought to be free and teachers paid well.
thinking speech facts
I think the adverb is a much-maligned part of speech. Its always accused of being oppressive, even tyrannical, when in fact its so supple and sly.
moving earth london
Astrologys a moving system that depends on where youre looking at it from on Earth. My horoscope here in London would be completely different to down in New Zealand.
moving frustrated feels
I often feel intellectually frustrated when I'm in a position where I'm not moving forward; when I'm not enquiring about something.
views sublime language
To experience sublime natural beauty is to confront the total inadequacy of language to describe what you see. Words cannot convey the scale of a view that is so stunning it is felt.
disappointment effort littles
I see disappointment as something small and aggregate rather than something unified or great. With a little effort, every failure can be turned into something good.
men evaluation disposition
A man ought never to trust another mans evaluation of a third mans disposition.
life clever remember
Remember that anybody who is clever enough to set you free is clever enough to enslave you.
solitude company conditions
Solitude is a condition best enjoyed in company.
thinking ideas luck
I have observed that male writers tend to get asked what they think and women what they feel. 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. The interviews much more seldom engage with the woman as a serious thinker, a philosopher, as a person with preoccupations that are going to sustain them for their lifetime.