Justine Larbalestier Quotations

When I was little, I made up my own fairy tales, and the ghostly echo of 'Once upon a time' shapes all the fiction I've ever written.

I give people 'If You Came Softly' when they demand proof that novels for teens can be as good as the best novels for adults.

I travel way too much to have any pets. But if I could have one, I'd want a quokka. They're basically small kangaroos native to Western Australia.

I'm one of those sad cases who've never wanted to be anything but a writer. I started writing my first novel when I was five years old. I have no idea what it was about, but I do remember spending considerable time trying to get the title right, though this had more to do with crayon colour than scansion.

I remember that feeling when I was a young reader: finding books that were set in Sydney with Australian characters was incredibly exciting.

I am not Nostradamus.Nor would I want to be. I'm convinced being able to tell the future is the worst superpower. I'd rather be invisible and being invisible never ends well. Just read H. G. Wells!

I'm sure other writers have no difficulties writing nice.

I started writing a novel from the monster's point of view. It has its own difficulties but, I'm ashamed to say, it's much easier writing from a psychopath's point of view than from that of their empathetic opposite.

I continued blogging, but between illness and deadlines, did not manage to blog nearly as much as last year. I'm hoping to do better in 2016.

I love blogging, even though apparently it's still dying, and hate it when I have too much going on to do so regularly.

Blogging, I love you no matter how out of fashion you are.

My experience with My Sister Rosa showed me, once again, that I have a much easier time of it if I sell my novels after I finish them, not before. I'm lucky that I'm in a position where I'm able to do that.

I think I've finally learned to stop worrying about how big the gaps are between my novels' publication.

I'm almost back to being able to write as much as six hours a day .

Sure, Malcolm Turnbull is less anti-science and anti-culture than [Tony] Abbott, but low bar, and there's not a lot to show for it beyond rhetoric.

We still have disgraceful policies on asylum seekers and Aboriginal Australians continue to die in custody.

The new prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, while a vast improvement on his predecessor is not doing much, if anything, to slow that process done.

In Australia we have a government actively undoing what little progress had been made on climate change and stripping money from all the important institutions such as the ABC, CSIRO and SBS.

I spent the year behind on deadlines and everything else. It's only now in December that I feel even slightly caught up. 2016 has to be better.

If you're ever invited, fellow YA authors, go. It's the first YA con I've been to that was overwhelming populated by teens. Wonderful!

I was wowed by Margo Jefferson's memoir, Negroland, which is about growing up black and privileged in Chicago in the fifties and sixties. It was a window into an alien world. Obviously, I'm not black, but what was really alien to me was her family's focus on respectability. I was never taught when to wear white gloves, what length skirt is appropriate.

I re-read The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter. It's a book every one should read, particularly Americans, as the USA is her primary focus. Her book demonstrates that white is not universal, that white is not neutral, that it has a history, which she eloquently delineates. It's not often you finish a book understanding how the world operates better than before you read it.

I decided to read something I normally hate: a cosy mystery. You know one of those mysteries where everything is tidily wrapped up at the end and everyone lives happily ever after? An Agatha Christie kind of mystery. They are so not my thing. But then someone was raving about Barbara Neely's Blanche White books and they sounded interesting.

Iloved Ashley Hope Perez's heartbreaking Out of Darkness set in late the 1930s in a small town Texas. It should win all the YA awards.

I've never read a book [ Nnedi Okorafor's Lagoon] like it before. Big and sprawling with a million points of view, including sea creatures. It's about an alien invasion that starts in Lagos, Nigeria but, really, that's just the starting point.

I discovered the writing of Kirsty Eagar and was blown away. Everyone needs to read her now.

The only reason I've ever had to wear a hat is to avoid skin cancer.

I've known white Australian girls from wealthy families who were sent to posh private schools, who knew all of that stuff, and I think would recognise much in Jefferson's book. What I related to most strongly was the sexism and misogyny Margo Jefferson had to battle.

One of my fave TV shows is Into the Badlands because martial arts staged well and magically and saturated colours and eye candy and coherent plot and world building. It has a strong diverse cast.

I enjoyed Ready For This, which was created by the people behind Dance Academy and Redfern Now, and really it's what you'd get if you crossed Redfern Now with Dance Academy

Some worked in collaboration with each other to produce comics as well as short stories.I was partnered with Anita Roy. We critiqued each other's stories. Hers is a corker: future Masterchef. I chortled. There's not a single dud in Eat the Sky.

The acclaim for Razorhurst means even more to me than usual because, let's be honest, Razorhurst is weird.

When I was little, I made up my own fairy tales, and the ghostly echo of Once upon a time shapes all the fiction Ive ever written.

Lungs, they do not like to be messed with. I give pneumonia one star and that's for the silent p.

Zombies are the proletariat. Long live the workers!

Really, according to the shrinks, I am angry at everyone ever. Especially them. I am all anger and resentment all the time. Not one of them has ever suggested that maybe I lie because the world is better the way I tell it.

A difference in self loathing? Please. The only difference between a gun and a rope is the time it takes to tie the knot.

My Sister Rosa was bumped from the schedule. None of my books has ever been bumped before. It freaked me out.

My father is a liar and so am I. But I’m going to stop. I have to stop. I will tell you my story and I will tell it straight. No lies, no omissions. That’s my promise. This time I truly mean it.

I can critique the bad; I can take the good, and I can add whatever I want.

Eating good food is my favourite thing in the whole world. Nothing is more blissful.

Speaking out and creating art that truly reflects the world we live in goes part of the way towards doing that. At least that's what I hope.

My favourite vampires are all very scary indeed. So the idea of falling in love with one is just weird to me.

I give people If You Came Softly when they demand proof that novels for teens can be as good as the best novels for adults.

The job of every generation is to discover the flaws of the one that came before it. That's part of growing up, figuring out all the ways your parents and their friends are broken.