Richard Flanagan
Richard Flanagan
Richard Miller Flanaganis an Australian novelist from Tasmania. "Considered by many to be the finest Australian novelist of his generation", according to The Economist, each of his novels has attracted major praise and received numerous awards and honours. He also has written and directed feature films. He won the 2014 Man Booker Prize...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionNovelist
CountryAustralia
full smart
When I was younger, I was full of smart things to say about all my books.
crisis dealing epidemic sadness unequal
There is a crisis that is not political - an epidemic of loneliness, of sadness - and we're completely unequal to dealing with it.
authority books creates grace lends life love missed moment people reader talk
What is missed when people talk about books is the moment of grace when the reader creates the book, lends it the authority of their life and soul. The books I love are me, have become me.
advanced change climate perhaps reminded saturday vulnerable
Black Saturday reminded many Australians of what they know only too well: that of all the advanced economies, Australia is perhaps the one most vulnerable to climate change.
age painted perhaps recent
Everything about The Bradshaws is controversial, fluid, uncertain: their age - perhaps 30,000 years old, perhaps older, perhaps more recent - who painted them, what they mean.
demand government growing known marching millions movement peaked white within
Within white Australia, there was a growing movement for what was known as reconciliation - a movement that peaked with millions marching in 2000 to demand the government say sorry for past injustices.
art create darkness deal deny expression false greatest hope life love rings stories untrue war
War stories deal in death. War illuminates love, while love is the greatest expression of hope, without which any story rings untrue to life. And to deny hope in a story about such darkness is to create false art.
cannot lies love perhaps ubiquitous
We like love - we love love - but perhaps its only meaning lies in its ubiquitous meaninglessness. We apprehend it, we feel it, and we think we know it, yet we cannot say what we mean by it.
I grew up in a world that was clannish - old Tasmanian-Irish families with big extended families.
love
Of all the love stories ever published, I have - realistically - read very few.
europeans history struck
I was struck by the way Europeans see history as something neatly linear. For me, it's not that; it's not some kind of straight railway.
grew returned strongly time
I grew up very strongly with this sense of time being circular: that it constantly returned upon itself.
love people
I am the happiest writing and being with the people I love.
cry poor
I'm a successful novelist, and I've been a lucky one, so I don't want to cry the poor mouth. Writing has never been easy.