Quotes by New Zealander authors

See the complete list of authors from New Zealand

Margaret Mahy

"At the same time, I think books create a sort of network in the reader's mind, with one book reinforcing another. Some books form relationships. Other books stand in opposition. No two writers or readers have the same pattern of interaction"

Margaret Mahy, Author

"The Slave Trade, though nominally abolished, is actively pursued here, eighty-three slaves having been landed just before my arrival, and another cargo during my stay"

George Grey, Leader

"Sunrise offered a very beautiful spectacle; the water was quite unruffled, but the motion communicated by the tides was so great that, although there was not a breath of air stirring, the sea heaved slowly with a grand and majestic motion"

George Grey, Leader

"Part of my plan was not only to introduce all useful animals that I possibly could into this part of Australia, but also the most valuable plants of every description"

George Grey, Leader

"I mention this fact as tending to support what I have often heard stated, namely, that a shark's sense of smell is so keen that, if men ever bathe in seas where they are found, a shark is almost sure to appear directly afterwards"

George Grey, Leader

"All the principal people in the town are concerned in the slave trade, and their chief wealth consists in the number of slaves they possess; therefore there is little chance of the trade being, for many years, totally abolished"

George Grey, Leader

"To sleep after sunrise was impossible on account of the number of flies which kept buzzing about the face"

George Grey, Leader

"Spanish alone was understood or spoken here; our friend, the countryman, stuck to us most nobly, he understood us not a bit better than the rest but saw that we were in distress and would not desert us"

George Grey, Leader

"This part of Brazil offered the curious spectacle of a great evil, which has been long suffered to exist and is now advancing, gradually yet surely, to that state which must entail inevitable destruction on the existing Government of the country"

George Grey, Leader

"In front of us lay a smooth sandy beach, beyond which rose gradually a high wooded country, and behind us was the sea, studded with numerous islands of every variety of form"

George Grey, Leader

Jenny Shipley

"Equality and development will not be achieved however if peace is not understood from women's' point of view"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

"It makes it very exciting don't you think to live in an age of, of discovery of human personality this way?"

John Money, Psychologist

Jenny Shipley

"The world has been gradually reducing its nuclear arsenals. Testing must stop so that progress on the destruction of nuclear weapons may begin"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

Jenny Shipley

"The serious problems facing the world today will never be solved until women are able to use their full potential on behalf of themselves, their families, and their global and local communities, as the World Bank and others have discovered"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

Jenny Shipley

"New Zealand's taken some very significant decisions in relation to defence in the last two years"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

Jenny Shipley

"I can't for the life of me see that by being permissive you actually assist anyone"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

"They think I'm going to be a schoolteacher but I'm going to be a poet"

Janet Frame, Novelist

"It would be nice to travel if you knew where you were going and where you would live at the end or do we ever know, do we ever live where we live, we're always in other places, lost, like sheep"

Janet Frame, Novelist

"The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another war plan. Clearly, the American war planners misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces"

Peter Arnett, Journalist

Jenny Shipley

"The Platform for Action gives due emphasis to the fact that women globally have continued to have insufficient access to the resources necessary to achieve economic independence"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

Jenny Shipley

"The Open Skies issue is something that's ongoing and we understand that there are issues in Australia that need to be sorted out. It's something that I think over time there's an opportunity for us and we'll work on that in a progressive way"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

"Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the factories, the streets, the cathedrals of the imagination"

Janet Frame, Novelist

"Divisions of the kind were fashionable at that time, and it was so easy to stifle one's need to help by deciding that help could neither be accepted nor understood"

Janet Frame, Novelist

"It costs $30,000 to $50,000 per year to send someone to jail. You don't have to pay so much to send someone to school at Johns Hopkins"

John Money, Psychologist

"Our reports about civilian casualties here, about the resistance of the Iraqi forces, are going back to the United States. It helps those who oppose the war when you challenge the policy to develop their arguments"

Peter Arnett, Journalist

"I'd like to say from the beginning that the 12 years I've been coming here, I've met unfailing courtesy and cooperation, courtesy from your people and cooperation from the Ministry of Information"

Peter Arnett, Journalist

"President Bush says he is concerned about the Iraqi people, but if Iraqi people are dying in numbers, then American policy will be challenged very strongly"

Peter Arnett, Journalist

Jenny Shipley

"Too often the desire for peace has been expressed by women while the stewardship of the mechanisms which are used to attempt to secure peace in the short and medium term are dominated by male decision-making structures and informal arrangements. This must change"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

Jenny Shipley

"Peace is a fragile thing. It takes courage to secure it. It takes wisdom to maintain it"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

Jenny Shipley

"It is important to remember that the Pacific Ocean covers a quarter of the world's surface and that each Pacific country has its own cultural, historical and ethnic identity"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

Jenny Shipley

"Hollow commitments to action in the future are insufficient. Deferring difficult issues must not be tolerated. Our children and grandchildren expect us to speak and act decisively"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

"For your own good is a persuasive argument that will eventually make a man agree to his own destruction"

Janet Frame, Novelist

"It's a non-stop invention, this game of life, and as soon as you think you've got it, you lose it"

Tim Finn, Musician

Jenny Shipley

"The government's position was that we have frigates that have got a useful life until 2006. There is no necessity for us to make final decisions until 2002"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

Jenny Shipley

"The decision by France to resume nuclear testing in the South Pacific has destroyed this hope and raised a storm of protest at home, in the South Pacific and thankfully around the world"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

Jenny Shipley

"Ten years ago in Nairobi we said that the participation of women in the decision-making and appraisal processes of the United Nations was essential if the organization was to effectively serve women's interests"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

Jenny Shipley

"With the adoption of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the international community sent out a clear message that gender based violence will not be tolerated"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

Jenny Shipley

"The Pacific had great hope that when the former President Mitered decided to halt nuclear testing, we had put behind us the issue of nuclear states testing their weapons in our Pacific region"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

"I am still in shock and awe at being fired"

Peter Arnett, Journalist

Jenny Shipley

"NGOs have a significant role to play, alongside governments, in improving the status of women"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

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