Peter Goldsworthy Quotes & Sayings

I smiled, but internally, unseen, using no visible facial muscles. — Peter Goldsworthy

Only the second-rate never make mistakes — Peter Goldsworthy

I could set from memory a replica of the perfect Still Life she laid out on the table each morning: the carefully folded Advertiser, the two canary yellow hemispheres of grapefruit in their bowls, separated by a more richly yellowed cube of butter; the sky blue milk-jug and matching sugar bowl filled to the brim with their differently textured whitenesses; the pot of tea snug in its knitted navy blue cosy, the steam that rose invisibly from its spout suddenly rendered visible, swirling, where it entered the slanting morning light. — Peter Goldsworthy

At home, my mother dabbed at her brow with a wet flannel she kept in the fridge for that purpose. — Peter Goldsworthy

I never hear you practice."
He smiled: "Only those who are dirty need to wash. — Peter Goldsworthy

My affection for you does not depend on those small things.'
Affection? To hear him admit it, to actually utter words of love, however understated, astonished me. — Peter Goldsworthy

A constant flickering confetti of butterflies showered the town of Darwin. Designer insects, I think of them now: there was something enormously wasteful, extravagant even, about the profusion of patterns and shapes and brilliant colours. — Peter Goldsworthy

Even the stars we see
are only a kind of memory,
already dead for years. — Peter Goldsworthy

We must know when to move on. To search too long for perfection can also paralyse. — Peter Goldsworthy