author & playwright
Danger is an aphrodisiac.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
The novelist is more a marathon runner than long-distance runner and the kind of courage it takes working in such isolation cannot be underestimated. I really respect my fellow writers on this front.
TOBSHA LEARNER
interview, Australian Women's Weekly, May 11, 2009
Intelligence is power; it is the flame behind the spark of intrigue. Find out all the facts and stamp out the fire. Demystify.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
A man who denies his past is a man who truly denies himself a future, for he refuses to know himself.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, don't be precious about your first draft, it's an architectural blueprint to a whole building, be your own worst critic, confront your weakness and remember it's a craft.
TOBSHA LEARNER
interview, Booktopia, February 22, 2011
This may be the very nature of love, a passion as fickle as the sea, full of certainty when the object of desire is absent, yet dubious when confronted again with the lover's presence.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
Believe, my child. Faith is the food of survival.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
As a reader I like both great characterization and fast moving plots. The challenge is to balance the both and not compromise one for the other.
TOBSHA LEARNER
interview, Australian Women's Weekly, May 11, 2009
Memory is a great deceiver: it embroiders until naught is left but the glory and the pleasure.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
Love wasn't a piece of music you could play over and over again with different interpretations. It actually needed to be improvised as you went along.
TOBSHA LEARNER
Quiver: A Book of Erotic Tales
I was very fierce and very driven at eighteen. But my basic philosophy I think has stayed the same, I'm still an atheist, I still believe strongly in the power of free will (despite the mysticism in my prose). I don't believe in the notion of a pre-ordained destiny, and I think because of the sudden death of my father at sixteen I learnt then that it is essential to live life to the fullest as it could be snatched away at any second.
TOBSHA LEARNER
interview, Booktopia, February 22, 2011
So many of man's actions appear to have no immediate consequence but, concealed, do their work until finally all catches up and forms a complex web of cause and effect.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
Information is the mortar that both builds and destroys empires.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
Two bones fell down my chimney and into the bedroom this morning. Hysterical thing to happen to a thriller writer. Murderous ravens perhaps?
TOBSHA LEARNER
Twitter post, May 21, 2014
Starting a new novel is a little like starting a new relationship -- you have to be prepared to commit for at least three years and put up with the domestic tedium as well as the emotional highs!
TOBSHA LEARNER
interview, Australian Women's Weekly, May 11, 2009
Humiliation scars deeper than the lash.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
Everything flows from God, but we are limited by imposing our human perceptions upon him. Man designs God according to his own image and the image man has of himself is flawed.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
It seems to me that women are freed from their responsibilities only when they are merry widows or eccentric old spinsters.
TOBSHA LEARNER
Soul
Death strips all men of dignity.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
You must appreciate that love is the last reason for which a man marries.
TOBSHA LEARNER
Soul