# Quote — J. M. Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello

> Because Costello is his mother’s maiden name, and because he has never seen any reason to broadcast his connection with her, it was not known at the time of the invitation that Elizabeth Costello, the Australian writer, had a family connection in the Appleton community. He would have preferred that state of affairs to continue.”

- Author: [J. M. Coetzee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee.md)
- Book: [Elizabeth Costello](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/elizabeth-costello.md)
- Page: 16
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._M._Coetzee#Elizabeth_Costello_(2003)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/elizabeth-costello/because-costello-is-his

## More from this book

> She inhabits her characters as a woman does, not a man.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/elizabeth-costello/she-inhabits-her.md)

> She no longer believes very strongly in belief... Belief may be no more, in the end, than a source of energy, like a battery which one clips into an idea to make it run. As happens when one writes: believing whatever has to be believed in order to get the job done.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/elizabeth-costello/she-no-longer.md)

> “His mother is entitled to her convictions, he believes. If she wants to spend her declining years making propaganda against cruelty to animals, that is her right.”

p. 17 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/elizabeth-costello/his-mother-is-entitled.md)