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" In ways I don't entirely have the words for, an experience, thought or a lesson isn't real for me until I've written down. "
Alexandra Fuller
Words
Experience
Lesson
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" The most basic human impulse is toward entropy and laziness. The less we have to do to grow spiritually, the more likely we are to do it. "
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" I listen mostly to classical music. "
Alexandra Fuller
Music
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Listen
" 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
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" I adore my family. I don't love their politics. I think they're wonderful parents. They were dreadful at parenting. "
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" One of the things about being raised British in Africa is that you get this double whammy of toughness. The continent in place itself made you quite tough. And then you've got this British mother whose entire being rejects 'coddling' in case it makes you too soft. So there's absolutely nothing standing between you and a fairly rough experience. "
Alexandra Fuller
You
Mother
Experience
" Retaining culture takes effort and persistence and discipline. It's a commitment, not a flag. You can't just pull it out and wave it about when it's convenient. "
Alexandra Fuller
Effort
Culture
Discipline
" 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
Matters
Labor
Me
" 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
Death
Know
Fight
" 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
Up
Love
Think
" 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
Child
World
Reality
" In general, I almost always watch foreign films. "
Alexandra Fuller
Almost
General
Foreign
" 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
Violence
Children
Up
" Until I read Anne Frank's diary, I had found books a literal escape from what could be the harsh reality around me. After I read the diary, I had a fresh way of viewing the both literature and the world. From then on, I found I was impatient with books that were not honest or that were trivial and frivolous. "
Alexandra Fuller
Reality
Me
Literature
" There's a point at which writing a book, or a long article, begins to feel like mental labor, and it's too painful to connect in the world in any real way mid-process. The only way to survive is to write until it is all said and done. "
Alexandra Fuller
Feel
Book
Done
" I want to make words out of life. That's bigger than me. That's as big a creative force as - bigger than, for me, even having children. That felt more accidental - wonderful, but accidental. "
Alexandra Fuller
Creative
Words
Children
" 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
Never
Someone
Book
" I write and I read, and I write and read my way into and out of ideas and life. And that's what we do. That's what storytellers do. "
Alexandra Fuller
Life
Ideas
Write
" It seems very clear to me that we, in the West, cannot afford to continue assuming propriety over the world's resources in a careless, greedy way without paying for it - not only with the lives of our loved ones, but also with our souls. "
Alexandra Fuller
Over
Me
Loved
" I love my mother so much, because I see the whole of her. "
Alexandra Fuller
See
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Because
" I think there's a big difference between loving someone out of duty and dependency and loving someone because you really are able to sort of grow and be whole in the context of that relationship. "
Alexandra Fuller
Think
Grow
You
" There is no way to order chaos. It's the fundamental theory at the beginning and end of everything; it's the ultimate law of nature. There's no way to win against unpredictability, to suit up completely against accidents. "
Alexandra Fuller
Law
Nature
Win
" 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
Courage
Sometimes
Honesty
" Everyone says marriage is hard work, but they don't tell you that actually being yourself and respecting yourself is hard work. "
Alexandra Fuller
Yourself
Marriage
Hard Work
" I always knew mum loved me - tough, look-after-yourself love, as if she knew she wouldn't always be there. "
Alexandra Fuller
Always
She
Love