As my name might suggest, I’m Jewish. My grandparents were Polish and Russian Jews who came to Australia in the late 1920s, and had they not, we wouldn’t be talking now. – Elliot Perlman
In my work, I’m always trying not to put barriers up between the ‘good poor’ and the ‘bad poor.’ I’m not sure my work will change things much, but at the very least, you want to make people feel that they are not alone. – Elliot Perlman
I’m a Taurus, which sounds like the name of a pickup truck. I’d prefer to be born under the sign of the rock wallaby. If you’re going to interpret your life pursuant to an utterly irrational dogma, why can’t it have a cute mascot? Rock wallabies really are fabulous animals, and in any remotely just world, they would have their own star sign. – Elliot Perlman
I like dialogue in novels. I wanted to avoid laying history on with a trowel – appearing to be lecturing, as opposed to the characters lecturing their children or students. Dialogue can humanise the story and make it go down somewhat more smoothly. – Elliot Perlman
After a while, if you’re a writer, you want to start appearing in the bookstores of the place you’re living in. – Elliot Perlman
Being an insomniac only slows me down. I try not to write at night, as I’m concerned that this will affect the quality. – Elliot Perlman
I can’t really remember a time in my life when I didn’t know something about what we call the Holocaust. It was this dark topic that I would know more about when I got older, but which was spoken about in hushed tones. – Elliot Perlman
Being an insomniac only slows me down. I try not to write at night, as I’m concerned that this will affect the quality. I might have a Scotch to keep me going, but I like to be as awake and as alert as possible. – Elliot Perlman
I’ll be happy if I can gain even the smallest place inside the literary imagination of U.S. readers. – Elliot Perlman
I know that at literary festivals I’m speaking mostly to middle-class women, who frequently vote in a way that is contrary to how I’d like them to vote. – Elliot Perlman
Combine a left-leaning upbringing with a family with direct experience of the Holocaust and someone with aspirations to write and I guess, sooner or later, that person will have a stab at writing something about the Holocaust. – Elliot Perlman
