Top 35 Justine Larbalestier Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Lungs, they do not like to be messed with. I give pneumonia one star and that’s for the silent p.”

— Justine Larbalestier

2. “I started writing a novel from the monster’s point of view. It has its own difficulties but, I’m ashamed to say, it’s much easier writing from a psychopath’s point of view than from that of their empathetic opposite.”

— Justine Larbalestier

3. “Eating good food is my favourite thing in the whole world. Nothing is more blissful.”

— Justine Larbalestier

4. “I’m almost back to being able to write as much as six hours a day .”

— Justine Larbalestier

5. “Iloved Ashley Hope Perez’s heartbreaking Out of Darkness set in late the 1930s in a small town Texas. It should win all the YA awards.”

— Justine Larbalestier

6. “My experience with My Sister Rosa showed me, once again, that I have a much easier time of it if I sell my novels after I finish them, not before. I’m lucky that I’m in a position where I’m able to do that.”

— Justine Larbalestier

7. “My Sister Rosa was bumped from the schedule. None of my books has ever been bumped before. It freaked me out.”

— Justine Larbalestier

8. “Killing things shouldn’t make you happy, Rosa. That’s why they’re worried.”

— Justine Larbalestier

9. “A difference in self loathing? Please. The only difference between a gun and a rope is the time it takes to tie the knot.”

— Justine Larbalestier

10. “Blogging, I love you no matter how out of fashion you are.”

— Justine Larbalestier

11. “I discovered the writing of Kirsty Eagar and was blown away. Everyone needs to read her now.”

— Justine Larbalestier

12. “The only reason I’ve ever had to wear a hat is to avoid skin cancer.”

— Justine Larbalestier

13. “One of my fave TV shows is Into the Badlands because martial arts staged well and magically and saturated colours and eye candy and coherent plot and world building. It has a strong diverse cast.”

— Justine Larbalestier

14. “Really, according to the shrinks, I am angry at everyone ever. Especially them. I am all anger and resentment all the time. Not one of them has ever suggested that maybe I lie because the world is better the way I tell it.”

— Justine Larbalestier

15. “I’m not sure I understand what love is. It’s like ‘good’. No one’s explained it clearly. I love ice-cream. I love chess and mathematics. I love getting what I want. I love getting away with things. But not people. They’re either useful or they’re not.”

— Justine Larbalestier

16. “The job of every generation is to discover the flaws of the one that came before it. That’s part of growing up, figuring out all the ways your parents and their friends are broken.”

— Justine Larbalestier

17. “When I was little, I made up my own fairy tales, and the ghostly echo of Once upon a time shapes all the fiction Ive ever written.”

— Justine Larbalestier

18. “I can critique the bad; I can take the good, and I can add whatever I want.”

— Justine Larbalestier

19. “The acclaim for Razorhurst means even more to me than usual because, let’s be honest, Razorhurst is weird.”

— Justine Larbalestier

20. “I don’t think they’re terrible parents. They love us. I think they’re negligent parents. That’s not the same thing.”

— Justine Larbalestier

21. “Zombies are the proletariat. Long live the workers!”

— Justine Larbalestier

22. “I enjoyed Ready For This, which was created by the people behind Dance Academy and Redfern Now, and really it’s what you’d get if you crossed Redfern Now with Dance Academy.”

— Justine Larbalestier

23. “See you in the fall.”

— Justine Larbalestier

24. “We still have disgraceful policies on asylum seekers and Aboriginal Australians continue to die in custody.”

— Justine Larbalestier

25. “Speaking out and creating art that truly reflects the world we live in goes part of the way towards doing that. At least that’s what I hope.”

— Justine Larbalestier

26. “I’m sure other writers have no difficulties writing nice.”

— Justine Larbalestier

27. “The new prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, while a vast improvement on his predecessor is not doing much, if anything, to slow that process done.”

— Justine Larbalestier

28. “I love that everyone’s into sports, that no one even talks about loving it ’cause it’s too obvious. It’s the air we breathe.”

— Justine Larbalestier

29. “My favourite vampires are all very scary indeed. So the idea of falling in love with one is just weird to me.”

— Justine Larbalestier

30. “If you’re ever invited, fellow YA authors, go. It’s the first YA con I’ve been to that was overwhelming populated by teens. Wonderful!”

— Justine Larbalestier

31. “I’ve known white Australian girls from wealthy families who were sent to posh private schools, who knew all of that stuff, and I think would recognise much in Jefferson’s book. What I related to most strongly was the sexism and misogyny Margo Jefferson had to battle.”

— Justine Larbalestier

32. “Rosa!” Sally says. “The police are here to help you, not to hear a lecture on comparative murder rates.”

— Justine Larbalestier

33. “I continued blogging, but between illness and deadlines, did not manage to blog nearly as much as last year. I’m hoping to do better in 2016.”

— Justine Larbalestier

34. “I give people If You Came Softly when they demand proof that novels for teens can be as good as the best novels for adults.”

— Justine Larbalestier

35. “She promised to be good. She wasn’t.”

— Justine Larbalestier

36. “They’re calling being black a look? How progressive of them.”

— Justine Larbalestier

37. “I love blogging, even though apparently it’s still dying, and hate it when I have too much going on to do so regularly.”

— Justine Larbalestier

38. “I spent the year behind on deadlines and everything else. It’s only now in December that I feel even slightly caught up. 2016 has to be better.”

— Justine Larbalestier