Geraldine Brooks Quotes

A collection of quotes by Geraldine Brooks.

Geraldine Brooks is an acclaimed Australian-American author and journalist. She was born on September 14, 1955, in Sydney, Australia. Brooks began her career as a journalist, working for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Wall Street Journal, where she covered conflicts and humanitarian issues from around the world.

In 1995, she published her first book, "Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women," a non-fiction work that explores the lives of Muslim women in various countries. This book reflects her years of firsthand experience as a reporter in the Middle East.

Brooks later turned her attention to historical fiction, publishing her debut novel, "Year of Wonders," in 2001. The novel, set during the 17th-century plague, garnered critical acclaim for its vivid portrayal of the era. However, it was her second novel, "March" (2005), that brought her widespread recognition. "March" is a reimagining of Louisa May Alcott's classic "Little Women" from the perspective of the absent father. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2006, solidifying Brooks' reputation as a gifted storyteller.

Throughout her career, Geraldine Brooks has continued to write historical fiction, exploring themes such as war and the resilience of individuals in times of adversity. Some of her other notable novels include "People of the Book" (2008) and "The Secret Chord" (2015).

Brooks' works are celebrated for their meticulous research, immersive storytelling, and thought-provoking exploration of complex historical events. She has received several awards and honors for her contributions to literature, confirming her status as one of the foremost authors of historical fiction today.

Men can absent themselves from real life for their art more

Men can absent themselves from real life for their art more easily. Women are anchored into the quotidian business of getting food on the table, making sure everybody's socks match, the soccer gear is ready. I admire idealists, but they're usually enabled by someone who holds the tether on their balloon, who pays the bills and sweeps up after them.

Geraldine Brooks

Food

I knew I was going to be a journalist when I was eight years

I knew I was going to be a journalist when I was eight years old and I saw the printing presses rolling at the Sydney newspaper where my dad worked as a proofreader.

Geraldine Brooks

Dad

The day in 2004 when the radiologist told me I had invasive

The day in 2004 when the radiologist told me I had invasive cancer, I walked down the hospital corridor looking for a phone to call my husband, and I could almost see the fear coming toward me like a big, black shadow.

Geraldine Brooks

Fear

My mother's family were full-on Irish Catholics - faith in a

My mother's family were full-on Irish Catholics - faith in an elaborate old fashioned, highly conservative and madly baroque style. I sort of fell out of the tribe over women's rights and social justice issues when I was just 13 years old.

Geraldine Brooks

Faith

I mean the beauty of being a writer is it's not like being a

I mean the beauty of being a writer is it's not like being a swimmer. When they were talking about our Olympic swimmers and they'd say, 'Oh she's so old,' and she's all of 25 or something. So the beauty for a writer is that you can keep doing it right into your dotage, and I hope to be able to keep doing it as long as I can get away with it, yeah.

Geraldine Brooks

Beauty

Sydney in the 1960s wasn't the exuberant multicultural metro

Sydney in the 1960s wasn't the exuberant multicultural metropolis it is today. Out in the city's western reaches, days passed in a sun-struck stupor. In the evenings, families gathered on their verandas waiting for the 'southerly buster' - the thunderstorm that would break the heat and leave the air cool enough to allow sleep.

Geraldine Brooks

Cool

There's just so many great stories in the past that you can

There's just so many great stories in the past that you can know a little bit about, but you can't know it all, and that's where imagination can work.

Geraldine Brooks

Imagination

There are always a few who stand up in times of communal mad

There are always a few who stand up in times of communal madness and have the courage to say that what unites us is greater than what divides us.

Geraldine Brooks

Courage

You can't write about the past and ignore religion. It was s

You can't write about the past and ignore religion. It was such a fundamental, mind-shaping, driving force for pre-modern societies. I'm very interested in what religion does to us - its capacity to create love and empathy or hatred and violence.

Geraldine Brooks

Religion

September 11, 2001, revealed heroism in ordinary people who

September 11, 2001, revealed heroism in ordinary people who might have gone through their lives never called upon to demonstrate the extent of their courage.

Geraldine Brooks

Courage

The thing that most attracts me to historical fiction is tak

The thing that most attracts me to historical fiction is taking the factual record as far as it is known, using that as scaffolding, and then letting imagination build the structure that fills in those things we can never find out for sure.

Geraldine Brooks

Imagination

Both my mum and dad were great readers, and we would go ever

Both my mum and dad were great readers, and we would go every Saturday morning to the library, and my sister and I had a library card when we could pass off something as a signature, and all of us would come with an armful of books.

Geraldine Brooks

Dad