Thomas Keneally

“It is a rare expert who combines a masterful command of his subject with the ability to make it accessible to the layman.”

“Australians are willing to give anyone a fair go, but they will pull you down if you get too big for your boots.”

“War is the supreme form of censorship.”

“He who saves one life saves the world entire.”

“The list is an absolute good. The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf.”

“The wicked are always surprised to find that the good can be clever.”

“Beyond a certain point, the whole universe becomes a continuous process of initiation.”

“A novel is a piece of architecture. It's not random wallowings or confessional diaries.”

“But to be liberated from the stigma of blackness by embracing it is to cease, in a sense, to be black.”

“The past is not a foreign country. It's a land of which we are all citizens.”

“What is a man's soul made of that a woman's is not?”

“It is an article of faith in my profession that all human beings, however exalted or criminal, are fundamentally decent.”