I am becoming increasingly difficult to please as a reader, but I adore being surprised by a really wonderful book, written by someone I’ve never heard of before. Alexandra Fuller Read Quote
The memoirs that have come out of Africa are sometimes startlingly beautiful, often urgent, and essentially life-affirming, but they are all performances of courage and honesty. Alexandra Fuller Read Quote
I think that being raised the way I was, where everything was so uncompromising, where, you know, we’re prepared to fight to the death for the soil that you believed belonged to you – that kind of extreme engagement is very difficult to flush out of your system – or your belief system, anyway. Alexandra Fuller Read Quote
I think for writers, I think it’s really important to court eviction from your tribe: to expose things and to wake people up. And so I think that that can feel like a violation to the people you love the most. Alexandra Fuller Read Quote
I remember Karoi as a very hot, flat place, but in reality, it is all hills. We just lived next to an airstrip – the only flat piece of land around. That was my world as a three-year-old and sums up the indelible power of memory to a young child. Alexandra Fuller Read Quote
In retrospect, I have come to recognise just how astounding my mother was during our childhood. She kept a woodwork shop and made beautiful furniture, as well as raising the pair of us in a society dominated by men. There really is nothing like war to reveal the power of patriarchy, but she always retained her independence. Alexandra Fuller Read Quote
I grew up in southern Africa but was born in England, so my family was afflicted with the stiff upper lip of the British. When coupled with the violence we saw as children, that can be a fatal combination. Fortunately, I have an outlet for trauma in my writing. Alexandra Fuller Read Quote
Everyone says marriage is hard work, but they don’t tell you that actually being yourself and respecting yourself is hard work. Alexandra Fuller Read Quote
I’m a working writer; this is my job. So it matters to me that it’s good. I sweat over every word. I don’t just vomit this stuff up. It’s agony. The only thing that comes close is childbirth, except it’s like being in labor for eighteen months. Alexandra Fuller Read Quote
