Steve Toltz
Steve Toltz
Steve Toltzis an Australian novelist...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionNovelist
CountryAustralia
Don't be afraid to have nothing.
war stupid home
That's how we slide, and while we slide we blame the world's problems on colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, corporatism, stupid white men, and America, but there's no need to make a brand name of blame. Individual self-interest: that's the source of our descent, and it doesn't start in the boardrooms or the war rooms either. It starts in the home.
loneliness kissing laughing
When we finished the kiss she said laughing, I can taste your loneliness - it tastes like vinegar. That annoyed me. Everyone knows loneliness tastes like cold potato soup.
dream moving book
There’s nothing wonderful or interesting about unrequited love. I think it’s shitty, just plain shitty. To love someone who doesn’t return your affections might be exciting in books, but in life it’s unbearably boring. I’ll tell you what’s exciting: sweaty, passionate nights. But sitting on the veranda outside the home of a sleeping woman who isn’t dreaming about you is slow moving and just plain sad.
relationship talking piano
Sometimes not talking is effortless, and other times it’s more exhausting than lifting pianos.
memories memorable effort
When you put so much effort to forget someone, the effort itself becomes a memory. Then you have to forget the forgetting, and that too is memorable.
children jumping bridges
Or about how when you're a child, to stop you from following the crowd you're assaulted with the line "If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?" but when you're an adult and to be different is suddenly a crime, people seem to be saying, "Hey. Everyone else is jumping off a bridge. Why aren't you?
men law broken
There are men put on this earth to make laws designed to break the spirits of men. There are those put here to have their spirits broken by those put here to break them. Then there are those who are here to break the laws that break the men who break the spirits of other men. I am one of those men. - Harry West
dream sick criminals
I've been labelled many times - a criminal, an anarchist, a rebel, sometimes human garbage, but never a philosopher, which is a pity because that's what I am. I chose a life apart from the common flow, not only because the common flow makes me sick but because I question the logic of the flow, and not only that - I don't know if the flow exists! Why should I chain myself to the wheel when the wheel itself might be a construct, an invention, a common dream to enslave us?
people quite
People always say, 'Write what you know', but I've always found that to be terrible advice. It's quite limiting, what you know.
eight five hours might pages throw work worth written
If I've written five pages by hand, out of those five pages, one page might be worth saving. The rest is crap. I have to throw it away. It's like I need eight hours to do two hours' work.
mean reality together
I don't have a great respect for reality or getting the 'facts' as a means of putting together a story.
mean sick deterioration
We're always sick and we just don't know it. What we mean by health is only when our constant physical deterioration is undetectable.
I'm not sure if I always wanted to be a writer, but I was always writing.