Eleanor Catton

I think that, in principle, a workshop is such a beautiful idea - an environment in which writers who are collectively apprenticed to the craft of writing can come together in order to collectively improve.

An interesting thing about New Zealand, you know, literature is that it really didn't begin in any real sense until the 20th century.

One of the things I really like about Victorian novels is the close anatomisation of character. People's gestures and mannerisms and the quality of their thought is very closely identified and analysed.

I often feel intellectually frustrated when I'm in a position where I'm not moving forward; when I'm not enquiring about something.

The nice thing about the zodiac as a system is it is quite comprehensive as a range of impulses and psychological states it can speak about.

The zodiac is a system a person can play with and see meaning in.