Kim Scott > Quotes

“Barnacles stud the smooth dark skin, and crabs scurry across it. That black back must be slippery, treacherous like rock … But you see the hole in its back, the breath going in and out, and you think of all the blowholes along this coast; how a clever man can slip into them, fly inland one moment, back to ocean the next. Always curious, always brave, you take one step and the whale is underfoot. Two steps more and you are sliding, sliding deep into a dark and breathing cave that resonates with whale song. Beside you beats a blood-filled heart so warm it could be fire. Plunge your hands into that whale heart, lean into it and squeeze and let your voice join the whale’s roar. Sing that song your father taught you as the whale dives, down, deep. How dark it is beneath the sea, and looking through the whale’s eyes you see bubbles slide past you like … But there was none of that. Bobby was only imagining, only writing. Held in the sky on a rocky headland, Bobby drew chalk circles on slate, drew bubbles. Bubelz. Roze a wail. He erased the marks with the heel of his hand. It wasn’t true, it was just an old story, and he couldn’t even remember the proper song.”
― Kim Scott, That Deadman Dance: A Novel

“Tilly would need a new environment, and good people around her. She had nowhere to go really. They’d seen enough addiction to know coming back to the same didn’t work anyway. But it would be good for her to get back into school somehow, especially since she’d been doing her last years of schooling and was doing alright from all accounts.
“She’s a state ward. You could be her guardian? If she agrees? If we can get her at a boarding school or hostel or something? Then you’d only need to have her here in the holidays, maybe?”
She might get a residential place at one of the boarding schools. Something. If she could rest, if she recovered, if she wanted.”
― Kim Scott, Taboo

“…nearly all his listeners knew of books and of the language in them. But not, as we do, that you can dive deep into a book and not know just how deep until you return gasping to the surface, and are surprised at yourself, your new and so very sensitive skin. As if you’re someone else altogether, some new self trying on the words.”
― Kim Scott, That Deadman Dance

“Good communication gets measured not at the speaker’s mouth but at the listener’s ear.”
― Kim Scott, Radical Respect: How to Work Together Better

“You can dive deep into a book and not know just how deep until you return gasping to the surface, and are surprised at yourself, your new and so very sensitive skin. As if you’re someone else altogether, some new self trying on the words.' ......
That Deadman Dance”
― Kim Scott

“Wooral was in the pilot boat now, heading for where the ship rested, its wings folded and tied. But it is a ship, not a bird, Menak reminded himself again. He gestured to his dog, and the animal leapt into his arms and fixed its attention on the ship as if the sight stirred some memory of scurrying after rats below its deck. Menak stroked the dog. Alidja, Jock. Noonak kornt maaman ngaangk moort. Look, Jock, your house father mother family.”
― Kim Scott, That Deadman Dance: A Novel

“We can change bad patterns and replace them with better ones. But only if we learn to recognize the bad patterns—our own biases.”
― Kim Scott, Radical Respect: How to Work Together Better

“You can dive deep into a book and not know just how deep until you return gasping to the surface, and are surprised at yourself, your new and so very sensitive skin. As if you’re someone else altogether, some new self trying on the words.' 'You can dive deep into a book and not know just how deep until you return gasping to the surface, and are surprised at yourself, your new and so very sensitive skin. As if you’re someone else altogether, some new self trying on the words.' ......
That Deadman Dance”
― Kim Scott, That Deadman Dance

“It was a surprisingly effective intervention. Once, I was an intern on a trading floor and one of the traders started screaming at me in a hyperaggressive, bullying way. Another colleague chucked a squishy ball at his head. The yeller quit screaming at me and started playing catch with the upstander. Thirty years later, I still feel grateful.”
― Kim Scott, Radical Respect: How to Work Together Better