2049 Quotes by Australian authors

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Australian voices speak in a dry, flinty music: wry understatement cut with sudden tenderness. These quotes carry the heat-haze of distance, the grit of red earth, and the salt from a restless coast. They honor Country and kin, memory and survival, while skewering pomposity with a larrikin grin. Expect stories that bend toward resilience, fairness, and frank talk, whether whispered under gum trees or tossed across a crowded tram. The tone is spare, playful, and fierce, with humor used as both shield and compass.

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"It is only when they go wrong that machines remind you how powerful they are"

Clive James, Author

Clive James

"You're only young once, but you can be immature forever"

Germaine Greer, Activist

Germaine Greer

"You can't fatten the pig on market day"

John Howard, Statesman

"'Programming' is a four-letter word"

Craig Bruce, Writer

Craig Bruce

"It's a sign of your own worth sometimes if you are hated by the right people"

Miles Franklin, Writer

"My salvation was a free gift. I didn't have to work for it, and it's better than any gold medal that I've ever won"

Betty Cuthbert, Athlete

Betty Cuthbert

"The time your game is most vulnerable is when you're ahead; never let up"

Rod Laver, Athlete

"The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize"

Robert Hughes, Critic

"I realised from a very early age that God gave me a gift, and that gift was to run, and I wanted to use it to the best of my ability"

Betty Cuthbert, Athlete

Betty Cuthbert

"Everyone has a right to a university degree in America, even if it's in Hamburger Technology"

Clive James, Author

Clive James

"There's something intrinsically Australian about a bunch of brothers and school friends getting together as a band at a very young age and all pulling together as a band at a very young age and all pulling together as mates to make something happen"

Michael Hutchence, Musician

Michael Hutchence

"The squeaky wheel doesn't always get greased; it often gets replaced"

John Peers

"The man who rows the boat seldom has time to rock it"

Bill Copeland, Athlete

"I always felt free when I ran. I suppose that's what was good about it"

Betty Cuthbert, Athlete

Betty Cuthbert

"My parents always encouraged me and I had a good home life. We were always taught to respect things and other people. It's so different today, because children are just not taught the right way"

Betty Cuthbert, Athlete

Betty Cuthbert

"The integral part of being a star is having the will to win. All the champions have it"

Betty Cuthbert, Athlete

Betty Cuthbert

"You've got to stick at a thing, a particular thing, until you succeed.I feel that's the only way to succeed - by concentrating on something in particular. Once you know what you've got to do you will succeed, you will succeed"

Betty Cuthbert, Athlete

Betty Cuthbert

"Everything I did that required effort, I opened my mouth. Even to catch a ball, I opened my mouth"

Betty Cuthbert, Athlete

Betty Cuthbert

"It's hardware that makes a machine fast. It's software that makes a fast machine slow"

Craig Bruce, Writer

Craig Bruce

"Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it"

Germaine Greer, Activist

Germaine Greer

"Everything I do is the environment"

Arthur Boyd, Artist

Arthur Boyd

"Tomorrow doesn't exist, yesterday is gone. The more I remind myself of that, the stronger I feel"

Liam Hemsworth, Actor

Liam Hemsworth

"Kittens are wide-eyed, soft and sweet, with needles in their jaws and feet"

Pam Brown, Poet

Pam Brown

"One small cat changes coming home to an empty house to coming home"

Pam Brown, Poet

Pam Brown

"Australia's diversity is a strength. It makes us better, it makes us stronger"

Anthony Albanese, President

Anthony Albanese

"Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer"

Henry Lawson, Writer

"Any man who has $10,000 left when he dies is a failure"

Errol Flynn, Actor

"A collection of huts surrounded by a barbed wire fence, and in the huts lived 500 of the original inhabitants of our area. And so it went with many country towns around Australia"

Phillip Noyce, Director

"God bless America. God save the Queen. God defend New Zealand and thank Christ for Australia"

Russell Crowe, Actor

"The work of a psychotherapist involves being empathic and insightful with one's patients without getting too lost in their painful stories to be helpful"

Pamela Stephenson, Actress

"Whoever called snooker 'chess with balls' was rude, but right"

Clive James, Author

Clive James

"Never question the relevance of truth, but always question the truth of relevance"

Craig Bruce, Writer

Craig Bruce

"You usually have to wait for that which is worth waiting for"

Craig Bruce, Writer

Craig Bruce

"Don't judge a book by its thickness either"

Craig Bruce, Writer

Craig Bruce

"They're very nationalistic, the French - or they used to be. Very insular. Pretty arrogant"

Arthur Boyd, Artist

Arthur Boyd

"There is an integrity to INXS, in the music, that makes it worthwhile"

Michael Hutchence, Musician

Michael Hutchence

"There's a lot of ingredients go into being a good tennis player"

Rod Laver, Athlete

"Life has got all those twists and turns. You've got to hold on tight and off you go"

Nicole Kidman, Actress

"It was immediately apparent that it was full of tricky ingredients to balance. In fact, I found it very intriguing. What held me back from saying yes to the producer was that I wasn't sure who could play Truman"

Peter Weir, Director

"It's absolutely not acceptable for people to argue that, if we are going to do anything about climate change at all, well, the responsibility lies solely with the individual"

Peter Garrett, Musician

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