New Zealand Artist Quotes

No-one has the right to terminate a person's life with a gun, a knife, or a makutu (spell). ~ Theresa Sjoquist

Leading the way forward at great cost to herself, her magnificent energy was so intense that it tumbles down still through many lives. ~ Theresa Sjoquist

When will the human race choose wisely? All know it is just as eventful, if not more so, when the young seek adventure, purpose, and dreams; instead of blaming everyone but themselves if they choose otherwise ~ Theresa Sjoquist

In 1991, Disney forced a group of New Zealand parents in a remote country town to remove their amateur renditions of Pluto and Donald Duck from a playground mural; and Barney has been breaking up children's birthday parties across the U.S., claiming that any parent caught dressed in a purple dinosaur suit is violating its trademark. The Lyons Group, which owns the Barney character, "has sent 1,000 letters to shop owners" renting or selling the offending costumes. "They can have a dinosaur costume. It's when it's a purple dinosaur that it's illegal, and it doesn't matter what shade of purple, either," says Susan Elsner Furman, Lyons' spokesperson. ~ Naomi Klein

With his fingers, he followed the shape of her chin, her jaw, and learned her features, committing them to memory. Her face was small, her bones fragile. Exquisite. ~ Sofia Grey

'How big's your dick?' Zak blurted.
His father gave a roar of outrage.
'How good's your dental plan?' asked Number Five.
Zak laughed.
'You can't ask that,' his father snapped at his side.
'My favorite composer is Rachmaninov. My last client moved to New Zealand. There's nothing stuck to my shoe. I had fruit for breakfast and I don't waste my time worrying. I make sure there's never anything to worry about.' He walked across the room and put his mouth close to Zak's ear. 'In answer to your last. How responsive's your gag reflex?' ~ Barbara Elsborg

When we shot 'The Lord of the Rings,' we had special permission to film in wild areas of New Zealand that could be accessed only by helicopter. They would drop us off and we would work all day, and they'd pick us up and take us out again. ~ Viggo Mortensen

An interesting thing about New Zealand, you know, literature is that it really didn't begin in any real sense until the 20th century. ~ Eleanor Catton

I'm not going to head off and do a Marvel film. So if I don't do a Marvel film, I don't have any other choice - I've got to go make a small New Zealand movie! ~ Peter Jackson

I'd love to visit South America, especially Argentina, as I'm a winemaker myself. They do a fantastic malbec, so it would be a dream to sample their grapes. New Zealand would be great, too. I'm a golfer, so it would combine both my loves. ~ Kyle MacLachlan

Twelve years ago me and Allanah became really sick of writing pop songs, ... Eventually we dug a grave for the Thompson Twins, pushed them in there, and then moved to New Zealand. Before that I'd lived for a long time in south London where reggae was the music of the streets around me. You'd hear it booming out of people's windows and shops, and you could buy great old reggae singles for 50p (NZ1.30) in second hand shops. I'd always loved that sound, so soon after we got here I started making electronic dub records with my mate Rakai Karaitiana as International Observer. ~ Tom Bailey

It's a great challenge to come from little New Zealand and beat the odds in Hollywood. ~ Martin Henderson

There are a lot of people of my generation in New Zealand literature, young writers on their first or second books, that I'm just really excited about. There seems to be a big gap between the generation above and us; it seems to be quite radically different in terms of form and approach. ~ Eleanor Catton

It is 1908.

The stars shone above in the night sky as a steamship floated among the clouds.

It's captain, Captain Otra, looked at his watch. He was ahead of his delivery schedule by 30 minutes to deliver the British Government it's much-needed order of concentrated milk and goat cheese from the shores of New Zealand.

He had inherited the business from his wife's father. His wife had passed roughly 5 years ago.

His daughter Lux Otra was tinkering for the hundredth time on her grandfather's sky faring compass, taking it apart and putting it back together. Each time she fixed, the compass worked perfectly again. Memorizing these intricate steps would give her a temporary satisfaction but now she couldn't do it anymore. She set the compass down and sighed in frustration. ~ Bellatuscana

In stories, you can find out all sorts of things. Did you know that in 1769 the English navigator Captain James Cook sighted Aotearoa (New Zealand)? He landed at Poverty Bay two days later. ~ Isaac Du Toit

The Government has to stop borrowing as much money; if we don't, quite frankly New Zealand will be downgraded and interest rates will go up for all New Zealanders. ~ John Key

We prepared to go ashore to publish for the first time in New Zealand the glad tidings of the gospel. ~ Samuel Marsden

Now, they say that New Zealand is beautiful and I do not know
because after 22 hours on a plane any landmass would be beautiful. ~ Lewis Black

I want to see a thousand tiny places, smell their flowers, and taste the sauces made by their people. I want to feel the difference between the textures of grit in Sri Lanka and Morocco. I want to meet the woman who bakes the best bread i n the smallest town in New Zealand. I want to find the best vantage point to see Bosnia from Croatia. What do the Grand Marnier crepes taste like in Rouen? In Paris? There are untold numbers of tiny places and extraordinary people who occupy them. We will perhaps see a hundred of both. ~ Tsh Oxenreider

New Zealand has the cheapest government money can buy. ~ Grant McLachlan

I'll let you into a little secret. If you want quality, if you want elegance, if you want individuality, then Gwenna's Superior Sweet Treats are for you. ~ Vicky Adin

I come from a country that lives and breathes rugby, and I didn't think there would be anywhere else in the world that could be the same. But New Zealand takes it to another dimension. It's extraordinary how much passion Kiwis have for the game. ~ Luke Evans

Well, we don't think for a moment that either the U.S. or Australia are out to damage the New Zealand economy, but if there were a sustained period in which they had a free-trade agreement and New Zealand didn't have that same arrangement with the States, that could be both trade- and investment-distorting. ~ Helen Clark

I've only seen pictures of New Zealand but everything I see is so pretty. Your eyes just ... I don't think my eyes could take the beauty! ~ Alana Haim

I believe we were all glad to leave New Zealand. It is not a pleasant place. Amongst the natives there is absent that charming simplicity ... and the greater part of the English are the very refuse of society. ~ Charles Darwin

The fact is Qatar, Etihad, Emirates, Singapore, Garuda, all of the three Chinese airlines, Air New Zealand - the fact is that international aviation relies very much upon agreements between nation-states, and it is not an area in which you have free market operations. ~ Anthony Albanese

New Zealand's Daniel Vettori is a very good bowler. ~ Sachin Tendulkar

New Zealand is a pretty no-nonsense place to work, like Australia. I mean it doesn't falter to anyone. ~ Dustin Clare

New Zealand as a whole needs to save more, spend less and reduce our reliance on foreign debt. ~ John Key

I want to get down to the nuts and bolts of what is actually going to change to lift New Zealand's economic performance. ~ David Cunliffe

I can't believe I'm in New Zealand, I can't wait to play. It's just so beautiful out here and so awesome. ~ The Rocket Summer

That was the big effect Lord of the Rings had on me. It was discovering New Zealand. And even more precious were the people- not at all like the Australians. ~ Ian McKellen

I grew up on the South Island of New Zealand, in a city chosen and beloved by my parents for its proximity to the mountains - Christchurch is two hours distant from the worn saddle of Arthur's Pass, the mountain village that was and is my father's spiritual touchstone, his chapel and cathedral in the wild. ~ Eleanor Catton

We are a small, open economy, highly dependent on global flows. It is inevitably a demand that dramatically alters and that is reflected in what we feel here in New Zealand. So there is at its most basic level a limit to what we can do and that is true everywhere. ~ John Key

But this gives no proper idea of my feelings at all; and no one that has not lived such a retired stationary life as mine, can possibly imagine what they were: hardly even if he has known what it is to awake some morning, and find himself in Port Nelson, in New Zealand, with a world of waters between himself and all that knew him. ~ Anne Bronte

Dear Oscar

I don't know how to say this any other way but, you see, I need to explain something. I can't stop thinking about that night when you rescued Barney with you tart – and how good and kind I realise you've always been. It wasn't until this morning when you sent me an apple tart of my own that I finally knew what it is that I have to tell you.
The timing is pretty terrible, but, you see, the reason I haven't wanted to go away is because I've wanted to stay here, and the reason I've wanted to stay here is because of you.
I've nothing against New Zealand or anything but because of how I feel, specifically about you, the whole world looks different.
I don't know whether it's because of everything has got darker or lighter. I guess that depends on how you feel about me which is, I hope, the same.
So anyways, look, you've convinced me that I should, as you say 'embrace the adventure' so that is what I have decided to do. It was the taste of you apple tart that finally made up my mind to give this my all. But I need to know you'll be here when I come back.
I love you Oscar Dunleavy.
I've been falling in love with you since that day we first met.
I need to have some idea about whether you feel the same way about me. Send me a sign.
Anything will do.
Love,
Meg ~ Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

Actually, parts of New Zealand remind me of Suffolk. There's not many flat bits, but just the atmosphere there. There's a kind of a core tranquility about it, a kind of assuredness that this is fairly close to approaching the perfect way to be. ~ Bernard Hill

Now it looks like I'll be known as the musical comedy guy. Which is good news for me. Or I'll be known as the New Zealand idiot. ~ Bret McKenzie

I have never found a solo life is devastated.At times it is lonely.It is a selfish life doing only the things you want to do. That is what the general public are jealous of but are not prepared to take the loneliness to reap the excitement that only solos can accept without having to consider others. ~ Theresa Sjoquist