Australian Quotes

And I liked pluralist Australia. I got a taste for pluralist Australia. I like, I like Australians and I can't believe that they're going to go to hell because they tell a good dirty joke, you know.

And I found both literature and the church very dramatic presences in the world of the 1950s.

And I definitely wanted to be a writer, but I felt a duty now, having used up those educational resources, I felt a duty to the church and my parents to become a priest.

You see, psychologically, Australia must understand it has to live in the region around it. Australia must find its security in Asia; it cannot find its security from Asia.

You see, before I became prime minister, the Australian prime minister only attended ever two meetings in the world: the British Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the South Pacific Forum.

You know, in the WikiLeaks cables, the Chinese discovered that Kevin Rudd was urging the Americans to keep the military option open against them. This is hardly a friendly gesture.

When the Berlin Wall came down the Americans cried, 'Victory,' and walked off the field.

Well, I think that - I think leadership's always been about two main things: imagination and courage.

Well, Australians should speak for the national interests of Australia, and whatever role former Australian prime ministers may have, one of the things you do is speak frankly about the country as you see the country's best interests, you know?

The United States being in Asia is unambiguously a good thing for the region.

The great curse of modern political life is incrementalism.

The great changes in civilisation and society have been wrought by deeply held beliefs and passion rather than by a process of rational deduction.

The G7, just a European centric show, an Atlantic show, is fundamentally finished.

Nobody wants to have in their CV in the upper echelons of the American economic family that they nationalised major banks.

In the end, rational policy is always good.

I've always held the view that great states need strategic space. I mean, George Washington took his space from George III. Britain took it from just about everybody. Russia took all of Eastern Europe. Germany's taken it from everywhere they can, and China will want its space too.

I try to use the Australian idiom to its maximum advantage.

I think the rise of China is one of the great events of all economic and human history, and I think this will be overwhelmingly a positive thing for the region and the world.

I think the Australian people are very conscientious. During the 1980s and 1990s we proved they will respond conscientiously to necessary reforms. They mightn't like them but they'll accept them. But reforms have to be presented in a digestible format.

I think Australia has to be a country which has the 'Welcome' sign out.

If one takes pride in one's craft, you won't let a good thing die. Risking it through not pushing hard enough is not a humility.

There was three or four years of my life where I hated myself and you know, would have quite happily ended it.

There are no big groupie fans or anything.

The touring for this album was definitely going to be the most intense touring we've done.

So I went and visited a doctor and he diagnosed me with reactive arthritis.

Reactive arthritis is something I've been dealing with for nearly a year.

None of us are really dumb and none of us are really smart. We're in the middle.

Kinda when I stopped eating was on our second album, just as it felt like everything was so out of control.

It makes it hard to get over a certain period of your life when you are constantly revisiting it every night.

It just makes everything more pleasurable when you've got someone that emotionally is there to rely on.