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.”

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

“War is the supreme form of censorship.”

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

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

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

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

“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.”

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

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

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