For although a man is judged by his actions, by what he has said and done, a man judges himself by what he is willing to do, by what he might have said, or might have doneโa judgment that is necessarily hampered, not only by the scope and limits of his imagination, but by the ever-changing measure of his doubt and self-esteem.
Eleanor CattonReason is no match for desire: when desire is purely and powerfully felt, it becomes a kind of reason of its own.
Eleanor CattonThe way that I see astrology is as a repository of thought and psychology. A system we've created as a culture as way to make things mean things.
Eleanor CattonI have observed that male writers tend to get asked what they think and women what they feel," she says. "In my experience, and that of a lot of other women writers, all of the questions coming at them from interviewers tend to be about how lucky they are to be where they are โ about luck and identity and how the idea struck them. The interviews much more seldom engage with the woman as a serious thinker, a philosopher, as a person with preoccupations that are going to sustain them for their lifetime.
Eleanor Catton