Haidee Lawrence

“When it comes to the crunch, coming out is the greatest of all confessions. Nothing is more difficult to acknowledge. When we become ourselves we reach right back to the time when we were conceived out of our parents’ passion.
We murder their lives. There can never be any forgiveness.”
― Witi Ihimaera, Nights in the Gardens of Spain

“When everybody else is bending with the wind, very few people will lean against it.”
― Witi Ihimaera, Sky Dancer

“He loved them deeply, but sometimes love becomes a power game between the ambitions that parents have for their children and the ambitions that children have for themselves.”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider

“I have always loved long journeys. The act of leaving accustomed surroundings is a release from real time, real life. You can place that familiar life on hold, freeze it, secure in the awareness that it will be there waiting for you when you come back. The journey itself becomes an opportunity to explore parallel lives, those other optional lives which have always been there.”
― Witi Ihimaera, The Uncle's Story