Theory & Practice Quotes

“Shaz was celebrating her birthday with a women-only lunch. Obviously the occasion called for mauling our mothers, tearing into them with our pointy teeth. As daughters, it was our duty and our fate to disappoint them, we agreed, and we swore we’d go on doing so. We howled and howled, and tears ran down our cheeks.”
― Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice

“Be the one to break up. Be the one. Be the cool one.’ ‘Who will write the history of tears?”
― Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice

“Everyone knows there are two types of mirrors, merciless and kind. The one over my bathroom sink was merciless, and I tried never to catch sight of myself in it.”
― Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice

“The airless corridors of the English department smelled of photocopier and fear. Students were milling about a noticeboard, sniggering at a hand-drawn cartoon strip with three frames: 1. Happy student arrives at university clutching a teddy bear labelled ‘Literature’. 2. Snarling tutor in a T-shirt labelled ‘Theory’ rips teddy to pieces. 3. Student sobs.”
― Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice

“At its best, my playing was confident and free of mistakes. That was always enough to earn me a Distinction, scraping through with a mark or two to spare. When I’d been playing for a few years, my teacher entered me for a music theory exam.”
― Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice

“Many years had to pass before I'd realise that life isn't about wishes coming true but about the slow revelation of what we really wished.”
― Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice

“the restaurant where he drinks too much schnapps on his last night in the Alps.”
― Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice

“I’ve never stopped expecting my mother to call me. Sometimes a kind mirror shows me her face. I find myself thinking back through her, just as the Woolfmother predicted I would.”
― Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice