There's just so many great stories in the past that you can know a little bit about, but you can't know it all, and that's where imagination can work. Geraldine Brooks bitegreatimagination Change image and share on social
For most people, chemotherapy is no longer the chamber of horrors we often conceive it to be. Yes, it is an ordeal for some people, but it wasn't for me, nor for most of the patients I got to know during my four months of periodic visits to the chemo suite. Geraldine Brooks chamberchemochemotherapy share on social
I'm a praying atheist. When I hear an ambulance siren, I ask for a blessing for those people in trouble, knowing that no one's listening. I think it's just a habit of mindfulness. Geraldine Brooks ambulanceatheistbless Change image and share on social
There are always a few who stand up in times of communal madness and have the courage to say that what unites us is greater than what divides us. Geraldine Brooks communalcouragedivide Change image and share on social
I swim in a sea of words. They flow around me and through me and, by a process that is not fully clear to me, some delicate hidden membrane draws forth the stuff that is the necessary condition of my life. Geraldine Brooks clearconditiondelicate share on social
The day in 2004 when the radiologist told me I had invasive cancer, I walked down the hospital corridor looking for a phone to call my husband, and I could almost see the fear coming toward me like a big, black shadow. Geraldine Brooks bigblackcall share on social
So, you know, Nathaniel was my first child, born when I was 40, so, uh... And then in due course, he wanted a brother, and then I thought, 'Oh, that'll be bloody lucky!' So, we ended up adopting a beautiful boy who was then five years old, from Ethiopia. Geraldine Brooks adoptbearbeautiful share on social
Sometimes I want to have a mental book burning that would scour my mind clean of all the filthy visions literature has conjured there. But how to do without 'The Illiad?' How to do without 'Macbeth?' Geraldine Brooks bookburnclean Change image and share on social
Writing is like bricklaying; you put down one word after another. Sometimes the wall goes up straight and true and sometimes it doesn't and you have to push it down and start again, but you don't stop; it's your trade. Geraldine Brooks bricklayingpushput share on social
One thing I believe completely is that the human heart remains the human heart, no matter how our material circumstances change as we move together through time. Geraldine Brooks changecircumstancecompletely Change image and share on social