"My first book came out fifteen years ago, and it was a very different world. In those days, I felt I had to be cool and calm and detached. (And when I say cool, I mean in temperament, not in, eh, Fonzie.) I read mainly detached, kind of cool writers. The opposite of who I am. You can probably tell, I talk too much, Iām angry, Iām messy as far as emotions go. But I was trying to be that calm person when I wrote. I still feel that pressure now. But the thing is that, while I spend my time writing, no oneās waiting for it. It takes a lot of sacrifice from my family. I need a lot of support from my friends. So I want it to count. Not that purely escapist work isnāt important because I think it is, but there are issues Iām interested in. We have a terrible government here in New Zealand at the moment, lots of unemployment, high levels of unhoused people, incredible poverty. And they keep telling us not to get upset. Thereās pressure from all directions to be āreasonable.ā At events where people mightāve spoken out, everyoneās being a little bit calmer. It worries me a lot."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Maybe weāre growing out of this as a culture, but I think a lot of us have been taught that good art shouldnāt be overtly political or attached to a rigid value system. Fiction writers might fear being too moralistic or academic. I appreciate the way your work argues against this instinct
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pip_Adam
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Pip Adam
7 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Pip Adam ā
Related Quotes
"I have to thank a writer friend called Kerry Donovan Brown. I was trying to create this world from top principles, baā¦"
"I did a workshop with Jordy Rosenberg maybe five years ago, and he was talking about this idea that a work of fictionā¦"
"I live in Aotearoa/New Zealand as PÄkehÄ, Tangata Tiriti, which means Iām part of the colonizing group. A massive parā¦"
"Work is the most interesting thing to me. Iām the first person in my family to go to university, and work was always ā¦"
"One of my friends, the writer Laurence Fearnley, got me in the habit of writing 500 words a day, which works for a fiā¦"
"My writing is always autobiographical. I live in a body that I donāt understand. I have a lot of trouble moving throuā¦"
"I am in my last year of study at Brandon University, toward a Bachelor of Arts Degree, majoring in Creative Arts (wriā¦"
"I am proud of my struggle to cultivate a creative spirit while independently raising my daughter, who at 20 is herselā¦"
"I have also gratefully engaged in many interesting experiences over the past decade: attending several births (includā¦"
"In May, 2009, in an attempt to raise awareness of the migrantās plight, I travelled with a group of B.U. students (leā¦"