A publisher saw one of my historical novels and thought I would write an admirable detective story, so she offered me a two-book contract, and I grabbed it. – Kerry Greenwood
I’m a duty solicitor, so I can’t fix someone’s life; all I can do is fix the problem I’ve got in front of my eyes. – Kerry Greenwood
I’ve always been in love with Melbourne. When I was 12, I was taken into the city by my grandmother to go to the ballet for the first time. – Kerry Greenwood
If you look at the map, there’s Thrace, Greece, Bulgaria, and there’s tiny Gallipoli. It is such a small part of the whole peninsula, and yet you only hear about this little tiny bit. – Kerry Greenwood
Clothes were terribly important in the ’20s. They really were an arbiter of who you were and how much money you had: an indicator of social status. – Kerry Greenwood
I have been reading crime books ever since I was a child, but I had never tried to write one. – Kerry Greenwood
I think it is rather heroic to go into a war zone where everyone is trying to kill you, and you have no way of shooting back. – Kerry Greenwood
I used to tell my three younger siblings stories because that was my household chore, and I told long stories in installments because it was easier and more fun than making up a new story every night. I loved it. – Kerry Greenwood
My work is very carefully researched. Sometimes I have to ditch an idea because I can’t prove it. – Kerry Greenwood
I have to write three books a year to make a reasonable living out of writing – unless, of course, she gets a major American film deal. Phryne has been optioned since the very first book, but to make a historical TV movie, it costs $30,000 a day extra for the historical detail to be correct, so most people aren’t doing it. – Kerry Greenwood
When I first started writing the books in the 1980s, all of the female detectives were flawed in some way because they were based on noir characters. – Kerry Greenwood
I went to a basic school, which had children from all corners of the world, and met my best friend and had to learn Greek because she didn’t speak English. – Kerry Greenwood
Sometimes it’s hard to start, but once it gets going, once you reach the tipping point – usually between chapter seven and nine – then it’s like hanging onto a large snowball as it hurtles downhill. – Kerry Greenwood
I didn’t want to write a grown-up account of Gallipoli. I wanted to find out what would happen if I looked at Gallipoli through the eyes of an innocent. – Kerry Greenwood
I decided that if I want to write about a female hero in the 1920s, I’m going to have to give her all the advantages I can because she has serious disadvantages in being a woman. I wasn’t going to have her cowed or overawed by class, so she had to be titled. – Kerry Greenwood
I fell in love with words in all languages, and I read everything I could find, particularly myths and legends and histories and archeology and any novels. – Kerry Greenwood
I got out of difficult situations when many of my classmates didn’t because I was smart, and I was lucky, and my parents were amazingly literate and helpful. – Kerry Greenwood
As a child, I would demand that visitors to our house tell me a story. I was intensely interested in everything – still am. – Kerry Greenwood
There’s something magical about the idea that you can write something down and someone else can read it. I’m still mildly agog about that. – Kerry Greenwood
In the 1970s, I used to buy opals and moonstones at the Queen Victoria Market, which were seen as old-fashioned and too heavy at the time. – Kerry Greenwood
I remember talking to John Mortimer, and he said he was relying on Rumpole to keep him in his old age; well, I’m doing the same with Phryne – she’s my mainstay. – Kerry Greenwood
