Home / Authors / Keri Hulme Books

Keri Hulme

Keri Hulme Books

Writer

Keri Hulme is a New Zealand writer known for her distinctive literary style and profound social insight. Her works often explore themes of personal identity, cultural conflict, and female experience, reflecting New Zealand's multicultural background. Born on March 9, 1947, Hulme's novel 'The Bone People' won the Man Booker Prize in 1985.

The Bone People: A Novel

A source page for quotes linked to Keri Hulme.

0 quotes

The Bone People

A source page for quotes linked to Keri Hulme.

0 quotes

Strands

A source page for quotes linked to Keri Hulme.

0 quotes

Related Quotes

“I know about me. I am the moons sister, a tidal child stranded on land. The sea always in my ear, a surf of eternal discontent in my blood.”

Self Sea Ocean Discontent

Author:Keri Hulme

“Betelgeuse, Achenar. Orion. Aquila. Centre the Cross and you have a steady compass. But there's no compass for my ever disoriented soul, only ever beckoning ghost lights. In the one sure direction, to the one sure end.”

Stars Compass Wandering

Author:Keri Hulme

“The color has faded out of the sky. It is grey, becoming darker as the world turns herself round a little more. The clouds are long and black and ragged, like the wings of stormbattered dragons.”

Nature Sky Clouds Dragons

Book:The Bone People

Source: The Bone People

“I am worn, down to the raw nub of my soul. Now is the time, o bitter beer, soothe my spirit; smooth mouth of whisky, tell me lies of truth; but better still, sweet wine, be harbinger of deep and dreamless sleep....”

Soul Sleep Dreams Wine Beer Whisky

Book:The Bone People

Source: The Bone People

“I am not dead yet! I can still call forth a piece of soul and set it down in color, fixed forever.”

Stills I Can Soul Forever Pieces Color Fixed

Book:The Bone People: A Novel

Source: The Bone People: A Novel

“Through poverty, godhunger, the family debacle, I kept a sense of worth. I could limn and paint like no-one else in this human-wounded land: I was worth the while of living. Now my skill is dead. I should be.”

Should Humans Artist Poverty Land Skills Despair Paint Wounded Debacles

Author:Keri Hulme

“The company you keep at death is, of all things, most dependent on chance.”

Chance Company All Things Dependent Company You Keep

Book:The Bone People: A Novel

Source: The Bone People: A Novel

“I have faced Death. I have been caught in the wild weed tangles of Her hair, seen the gleam of her jade eyes. I will go when it is time - no choice! - but now I want life.”

Want Has Beens Eye Choices Hair Caught Weed Gleam Jade

Author:Keri Hulme

“I am exceedingly angry for no good reason.”

Book:The Bone People: A Novel

Source: The Bone People: A Novel

“Wars of small kingdoms and forgotten lands, what do chessmen dream of in the dark?”

War Dream Dark Land Forgotten Kingdoms

Author:Keri Hulme

“I am in limbo, and in limbo there are no races, no prizes, no changes, no chances. There are merely degrees of endurance, and endurance never was my strong point.”

Strong Chance Race Degrees Prize Endurance Limbo

Book:The Bone People: A Novel

Source: The Bone People: A Novel

“Why? is the boy's motto, why does, why is, why not? Food, weather, time, fires, sea and season, clothes and cars and people; it's all grist to the mill of why.”

People Doe Boys Fire Sea Car Clothes Seasons Weather Why Not Motto Mills

Book:The Bone People: A Novel

Source: The Bone People: A Novel

“The smarter you are, the more you know, the less reason you have to trust or love or confide.”

Knows Life Inspirational Reason Smarter

Book:The Bone People: A Novel

Source: The Bone People: A Novel

“You want to know about anybody? See what books they read, and how they've been read.”

Knows Want Book

Book:The Bone People: A Novel

Source: The Bone People: A Novel

“A family can be the bane of one's existence. A family can also be most of the meaning of one's existence. I don't know whether my family is bane or meaning, but they have surely gone away and left a large hole in my heart.”

Knows Heart Left Existence Gone My Heart My Family Holes Bane Dysfunctional Family Gone Away Hole In My Heart

Book:The Bone People: A Novel

Source: The Bone People: A Novel

“But hands are sacred things. Touch is personal, fingers of love, feelers of blind eyes, tongues of those who cannot talk.”

Hands Eye Blind Sacred Fingers Tongue Blind Eyes Sacred Things Feeler

Book:The Bone People: A Novel

Source: The Bone People: A Novel

“I am not a person to say the words out loud I think them strongly, or let them hunger from the page: know it from there, from my silence, from somewhere other than my tongue the quiet love the silent rage.”

Thinking Knows Persons Silence Quiet Pages Silent Hunger Tongue Rage Loud

Book:Strands

Source: Strands

“I have watched the river and the sea for a lifetime. I have seen rivers rob soil from the roots of trees until the giants came foundering down. I have watched shores slip and perish, the channels silt and change; what was beach become a swamp and a headland tumble into the sea. An island has eroded in silent pain since my boyhood, and reefs have become islands. Yet the old people used to say, People pass away, but not the land. It remains forever. Maybe that is so. The land changes. The land continues. The sea changes. The sea remains.”

People Pain Used Forever Tree Sea Land Rivers Roots Remains Silent Lifetime Beach Islands Giants Soil Shore Slips Old People Passing Away Swamps Boyhood Reefs Sea Change

Book:The Bone People: A Novel

Source: The Bone People: A Novel

“It's the possibility that when you're dead you might still go on hurting that bothers me.”

Stills Might Hurt Possibility Goes On Bother

Book:The Bone People: A Novel

Source: The Bone People: A Novel

“There is a time, when passing through a light, that you walk in your own shadow.”

Light Walks Quiet Shadow Passing Passings Passing Through

Book:The Bone People: A Novel

Source: The Bone People: A Novel

About the Author

Born: March 9, 1947
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 20

Related Topics

Knows Land Sea Chance Eye Forever People Quiet Reason Silent

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Bone People: A NovelRelated source material

The Bone PeopleRelated source material

StrandsRelated source material

Similar Authors

Humphrey GilbertBrowse related quotes
Edwin Paxton HoodBrowse related quotes
Lynn Culbreath NoelBrowse related quotes
Adelaide CrapseyBrowse related quotes
Neil AbercrombieBrowse related quotes
Andre BjerkeBrowse related quotes
William Wetmore StoryBrowse related quotes
Anaximenes of MiletusBrowse related quotes
Otis SkinnerBrowse related quotes
Ten BearsBrowse related quotes