In the circle where I was raised, I knew of no one knowledgeable in the visual arts, no one who regularly attended musical performances, and only two adults other than my teachers who spoke without embarrassment of poetry and literature… — Shirley Hazzard Copy Share Image
It's nervous work. The state you need to write in is the state that others are paying large sums of money to get rid… — Shirley Hazzard Copy Share Image
Great literature is like moral leadership; everyone deplores the lack of it, but there is a tendency to prefer it from the safely dead. — Shirley Hazzard Copy Share Image
When people say of their tragedies, 'I don't often think of it now,' what they mean is it has entered permanently into their thoughts,… — Shirley Hazzard Copy Share Image
“But that's a way to go on loving--a place, or a person. To miss it. In fact, to go away, to put yourself in… — Shirley Hazzard Copy Share Image
“I see that you are highly defensive." . . . Caro said, "I withhold my analysis of your own attitude.” — Shirley Hazzard Copy Share Image
“... although the sufferings of children are the worst, being inextinguishable--children themselves seldom have a proper sense of their own tragedy, discounting and keeping… — Shirley Hazzard Copy Share Image
“I said, "Some people do know more than others. That contributes to the impression that someone, somewhere,knows the whole thing." [p. 38]” — Shirley Hazzard Copy Share Image
“Dark had meant Dora, had meant words and events sordid with self. Struggling to the light from Dora's darkness, Caro had acquired conscience and… — Shirley Hazzard Copy Share Image
Marriage is like democracy - it doesn't really work, but it's all we've been able to come up with. — Shirley Hazzard Copy Share Image
“Sometimes, as now, her heart twisted and broke under his determination to wound her. At others, she was almost convinced that she felt nothing… — Shirley Hazzard Copy Share Image
“Chief Coordinator of DALTO – the Department of Aid to the Less technically Oriented, working to induce backwards nations to come forwards.” — Shirley Hazzard Copy Share Image