Peter Carey Quotes

“To know you will be lonely is not the same as being lonely.”

Peter Carey Oscar and Lucinda

Source: Oscar and Lucinda

“You could not tell a story like this. A story like this you could only feel.”

Peter Carey Oscar and Lucinda

Source: Oscar and Lucinda

“People do not love those whose eyes show that they are somewhere else”

Peter Carey

Source: Collected Stories

“He was referring, of course, to the gentleman employed by Henry Luce and you will note, at once, the slightly unpleasant and combative tone of the salesman but there is also so much glee contained in it, an anticipation of the joys of a difficult battle, that even a person of fine scruples, sensitive to the vulgarity of the salesman type (such as yourself, Professor) need not be offended but rather challenged by the contradiction contained herein, i. e. that this crass aggression can co-exist with an ability to draw very fine moral distinctions and to see, very objectively, the damage his father's business was doing to the fauna of the country he loved and that, further - like real estate for instance - it was one of those great Australian enterprises that generate wealth while making nothing new.”

Peter Carey book Illywhacker

Page 561.
Illywhacker (1985)