Tara Moss > Quotes

“Write. Start writing today. Start writing right now. Don’t write it right, just write it –and then make it right later. Give yourself the mental freedom to enjoy the process, because the process of writing is a long one. Be wary of “writing rules” and advice. Do it your way.”
― Tara Moss

“It is better to do what you love for work, but if it is your day job that enables an unpaid passion, then your life is still sweeter. What is important is that you make time for your dreams, not whether or not you get paid for it.”
― Tara Moss

“The reflex of fear was soon replaced with another, more useful emotion.
Rage.”
― Tara Moss, Assassin

“I looked at the fashion model and reassured myself she wasn't dead.”
― Tara Moss, The Spider Goddess

“Our sex need not primarily define who we are, what we are capable of, or what we can be expected to enjoy or engage in. In other words, the boy with the Barbie doll does not have a problem with identity. He simply has a Barbie doll. The full-time working mother and full-time stay-at-home father have not given up something essential to their identities by taking on those roles: they have negotiated their lives as it works for them. Likewise, a stay-at-home mum is not anti-feminist any more than a stay-at-home dad is. Other characteristics, such as individual ability, personal relationships, personal choice, past experience and education, are far more important than that box you tick defining yourself as M or F.”
― Tara Moss, The Fictional Woman

“Just because it’s in a book doesn’t mean it isn’t real.’
- Great Aunt Celia”
― Tara Moss, The Spider Goddess

“I’ll find out whatever I can about this Frank. Would the girls go to the police if they were in danger, do you think?”

“I can’t say,” Shyla replied, but her head was shaking as she spoke. That was hardly a surprise. A lot of Aboriginal people were suspicious of the police, or gunjies, as Shyla sometimes called them. Through conversations with Shyla, Billie had some of the picture—how contacting the authorities about anything might lead to being arrested for something else, or having the men taken, or having the Aborigines Welfare Board take children away “for their own good.”

Stuff like that tended to ensure that trust was in short supply. That long and troubled history had not been forgotten and had created understandable tension between Aboriginal communities and the white authorities. That couldn’t simply vanish overnight.”
― Tara Moss, The War Widow

“Billie was hoping to get these two alive but was feeling rapidly less stuck on the idea.”
― Tara Moss, The War Widow

“And as for returning to work as a reporter—something she’d given considerable thought to before taking over her father’s inquiry agency—the Sydney newspapers had dismissed most of their women reporters home once the men started to return from the war, or else confined them to the social pages, or covering the Easter Show, which was a bit too steep a downgrade for Billie after she’d chased Nazi activity across Europe, built a good portfolio of published articles, and worked alongside the likes of Lee Miller and Clare Hollingworth.

No, she wouldn’t last in that kind of work. It was an imperfect world, and her chosen profession was decidedly imperfect, but for now she had a hint of that spark again, that sense of doing something that mattered to someone.”
― Tara Moss, The War Widow

“But how do you separate myth from reality? How do you know which of these goddesses or creatures really exist?’ I pressed.

‘I don’t,’ she said simply. ‘But if they do exist there’s a good chance they’ll show up in Spektor.”
― Tara Moss, The Spider Goddess

“more success tattooing a soap bubble”
― Tara Moss, The War Widow

“...she and trouble knew each other rather intimately. No reason the end of the war would stop such a seemingly natural pairing, she supposed.'

- Chapt 1, The Ghosts of Paris, Tara Moss”
― Tara Moss, The Ghosts of Paris

“Find the joy where you can, and maintain the rage where it's needed.”
― Tara Moss

“Just because it’s in a book doesn’t mean it isn’t real.’ Great Aunt Celia, The Spider Goddess.”
― Tara Moss, The Spider Goddess

“Tonight she had pulled on a dark blue cap, and matching gloves, as much to avoid touching her surrounds as it was for any standard of fashion. As the sun had fled the area, these garments were almost like a cloak of nocturnal invisibility, strategically blending her into the shadows. Only her stocking-clad calves and ankles were exposed, and her trusty stacked-heel Oxfords – shoes she could wear in most acceptable establishments, and could run in. One never knew when such qualities might matter.

- Chapter 2, The Ghosts of Paris”
― Tara Moss, The Ghosts of Paris