Alexandra Fuller Quotes & Sayings

“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.”

“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.”

“I always knew mum loved me - tough, look-after-yourself love, as if she knew she wouldn't always be there.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I listen mostly to classical music.”

“I love my mother so much, because I see the whole of her.”

“In general, I almost always watch foreign films.”

“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.”

“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.”