"It's much more interesting for me to think that taking a chunk of experience and mushing it up toget..." — Helen Garner

Maybe this is pathetic, but I still dread producing a book that doesn't earn back its advance. I hate obligations that are financially foggy.

Life's fairly excruciating. Painful things happen. Every now and then, you drag yourself out of the stream and stand on the bank gasping for air. I think that's how I work.

I used to feel an obligation to invent things. I felt I was a failure because I didn't do massive great novels about Australia or the outback or something. I just don't feel that any more.

I don't believe that anything's totally invented... If you're completely inventing a story, there wouldn't be an urge to tell it.