A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki

"I mean, if I thought the world would want to know about old Jiko, I'd post her stories in a blog, but actually, I stopped doing that a while ago. It made me sad when I caught myself pretending that everybody out there in cyberspace cared about what I thought, when really nobody gives a shit. And when I multipied that sad feeling by all the millions of people in their lonely little rooms, furiously writing and posting to their lonely little pages that nobody has time to read because they're all so busy writing and posting it kind of broke my heart."

Tracks - Robyn Davidson

"There are some moments in life that are like pivots around which your existence turns - small intuitive flashes, when you know you have done something correct for a change, when you think you are on the right track. I watched a pale dawn streak the cliffs with Day-glo and realized this was one of them. It was a moment of pure, uncomplicated confidence - and lasted about ten seconds."


From the Postscript (2012):
"The question I'm most commonly asked is 'Why?'. A more pertinent question might be, why is it that more people don't attempt to escape the limitations imposed upon them?"

Questions of Travel - Michelle De Kretser

 

"I don't want to be a tourist in my own country."