A biography for Kerry Greenwoodhasn’t been written yet.
“I got out of difficult situations when many of my classmates didn't because I was smart, and I was lucky, and my parents were amazingly literate and helpful.”
“Clothes were terribly important in the '20s. They really were an arbiter of who you were and how much money you had: an indicator of social status.”
“I fell in love with words in all languages, and I read everything I could find, particularly myths and legends and histories and archeology and any novels.”
“In the 1970s, I used to buy opals and moonstones at the Queen Victoria Market, which were seen as old-fashioned and too heavy at the time.”
“I'm a duty solicitor, so I can't fix someone's life; all I can do is fix the problem I've got in front of my eyes.”
“I went to a basic school, which had children from all corners of the world, and met my best friend and had to learn Greek because she didn't speak English.”
“I like writing books. I really love words. I love to read.”
“Sometimes it's hard to start, but once it gets going, once you reach the tipping point - usually between chapter seven and nine - then it's like hanging onto a large snowball as it hurtles downhill.”
“There are only so many stories in the world... Duplication of plots is bound to happen because most writers have read very extensively in their genre and have become aware they are adding an extra layer to the meta-narrative, finding a new spin on the original.”
“There's something magical about the idea that you can write something down and someone else can read it. I'm still mildly agog about that.”
“I remember talking to John Mortimer, and he said he was relying on Rumpole to keep him in his old age; well, I'm doing the same with Phryne - she's my mainstay.”
“I liked the Ballarat train as a child.”
“As a child, I would demand that visitors to our house tell me a story. I was intensely interested in everything - still am.”
“My work is very carefully researched. Sometimes I have to ditch an idea because I can't prove it.”
“I research every possible bit of information I can find. Then I use about a tenth of it. But I have to know all the information first; otherwise, I'm not going to convince myself, and if I can't convince myself, then I'm not going to convince the reader.”