Janet Malcolm's probably the writer I most admire and who's most influenced me. Helen Garner More Quotes by Helen Garner More Quotes From Helen Garner But I now think what I was doing, in a completely unconscious way, was getting off the turf where my husband and I might be rivals. We were both working in fiction... so I look back and I see that I consciously vacated the contested ground. Helen Garner husbandlooksthinking I like poking my nose into other people's lives. Helen Garner nosespeople But there are some wounds that can never be healed. Helen Garner healedwoundsart I think writers are very anxious. Helen Garner anxiousthinking Courts are supposed to be places of reason. But this, of course, is a fantasy. I mean, there is reason being used as a technique. But courts, in fact, are baths of emotions. Helen Garner emotionsbeingfantasyreason There's only one thing I know what to do, so I'm pretty much otherwise unemployable. The idea that you can make a living from exercising your only skill is wonderful. And it's wonderful to be read. It's a really exciting and happy thing to be read. Helen Garner skillknowyouhappy 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. Helen Garner yourselfyouworklife I just... my childhood seems, when I look back, to be largely composed of reading, lying on the bed. I mean, my mother was always shouting, 'Go outside!' But she shouted it at all of us. I think I was just kind of... rather an introverted child, probably. Helen Garner childlookchildhoodmother I tell you one thing that makes me feel I haven't wasted my life, and that is I've got some grandchildren. You can't overestimate the kind of opening to the future that gives a person, I think. Helen Garner meyoufuturelife That's the best thing that's ever happened to me, bar none, is having grandchildren and living by them and being part of their lives. Helen Garner bestmelivinggrandchildren It's very shocking, I think, for people caring for the dying to realise how unsaintly they feel, how much anger is mixed up with their grief. In fact, often I think the anger that they feel is a form of grief; it's a kind of raging against what's happening. Helen Garner feelangercaringpeople
