Louise Brown Quotes

“A raped girl is bad for the family: it shows that they can't protect their women; that they have little social standing; and that they're not respectable. It's worse for the victim because once a woman, or a girl-or a boy-is known as the target of a rape she becomes so despised, so shamed, so worthless that she turns into public property. No one is raped only once.”

— Louise Brown

“I'm playing catch with Nisha and Nena. They're standing against the opposite wall shrieking with enjoyment. They're teenagers, but they've never played catch before and lack any sense of coordination; when they throw the ball to me it flies in any direction. Sometimes it hits the wall behind them. We've been playing for half an hour and they have only caught it twice.”

— Louise Brown

“Another of them died last night. His body was in the bazaar this morning. It lay, with a collecting bowl at its feet, on the charpoy that is reserved for those who die without money or family to bury them. He looked desiccated and his skin had the sheen and color of the dates we eat to break our fast. There are new bodies on that charpoy every week.”

— Louise Brown

“Never give up. And most importantly, be true to yourself. Write from your heart, in your own voice, and about what you believe in.”

— Louise Brown

Much of my reading time over the last decade and a half has been spent reading aloud to my children. Those children's bedtime rituals of supper, bath, stories, and sleep have been a staple of my life and some of the best, most special times I can remember.

— Louise Brown

“The young women in my classes are feisty and clever and believe, often with the passion of youthful optimism, that feminism is a battle already won. I worry for them - and for my daughters, too.”

— Louise Brown

“The richest most meaningful stories are found in small places: made, carried, crafted, told, and retold by apparently unimportant people.”

— Louise Brown

“I have a good collection of cookery books. This is not so much because I like cooking, but because I like eating.”

— Louise Brown

Remember that what you have is unique because it's your own special way of looking at the world.

— Louise Brown

“I'm working on a nonfiction book on Nepal and a novel about diasporas.”

— Louise Brown

“I never felt any different from anyone else though.”

— Louise Brown

I thought it was something peculiar to me. I thought I was abnormal.

— Louise Brown

People still come up to me and ask whether I am Louise Brown or if they've seen me somewhere else before.

— Louise Brown

Reading is my greatest luxury.

— Louise Brown

I used to think about how I was conceived quite a lot when I was about 10 or 11, but I don't think about it at all now that so many other babies have been born in the same way.

— Louise Brown

“Sometimes I like to play the soundtracks to famous musicals so we can all sing along. South Pacific is one of my favorites. Our neighbors must hate us.”

— Louise Brown

“The importance and influence of books on me has been cumulative: the result of hearing and reading lots of stories about interesting people and places.”

— Louise Brown

“I don't envy men and I certainly wouldn't like to become one now.”

— Louise Brown

“If you can't return a favor, pass it on.”

— Louise Brown

“I can't pick out one single book that had such a profound personal impact.”

— Louise Brown

I could write an entertaining novel about rejection slips, but I fear it would be overly long.

— Louise Brown

“Don't write the book you think publishers want to commission. Plenty of other writers will be doing the same thing.”

— Louise Brown

“Every year I teach dozens of students at the University of Birmingham. Most of the students on the gender and sexuality courses are women. I guess this is because the boys don't think that gender applies to them: that it's a subject for girls.”

— Louise Brown

“I like many types of music and probably too many to mention here.”

— Louise Brown

“Then I obviously didn't understand what it all meant, but I do now.”

— Louise Brown

“When dad told me Mr Steptoe had passed away, I broke down.”

— Louise Brown

“The Dancing Girls of Lahore was offered to dozens of British publishers and was turned down by everyone. It is still on offer in the U.K., but I'm not confident there will be any takers.”

— Louise Brown

I bought a selection of short, romantic fiction novels, studied them, decided that I had found a formula and then wrote a book that I figured was the perfect story. Thank goodness it was rejected.

— Louise Brown

It took a brave editor in the U.S. to sign a contract for Dancing Girls, and without her belief in the book, I'm not sure it would ever have found its way into print.

— Louise Brown

“When I was a child and teenager I read whenever I had the opportunity, but since then I've found it hard to read as much as I'd like, children, work, and pets all providing powerful incentives to escape into a book and a practical reason why I rarely do so.”

— Louise Brown

“Don't call 'em dogs. Dogs are loyal and they run after balls.”

— Louise Brown