I must apologise because I know all writers have memories of being on the outer because it's the children on the side of the playground who become the dangerous writers.

So I was very close to ordination. I was delighted to be ordained a deacon, which is the last step between, before becoming a priest. But then it all fell apart.

Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.

The List is Life.

But I was also a brat. I used to belong to a gang that went looking for fights with other gangs.

But in practice Australia - the pluralism of Australia - sorry the sectarianism to an extent stopped at the time you took your uniform off after coming home from school.

Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't.

The principle was, death should not be entered like some snug harbor. It should be an unambiguous refusal to surrender.

It's only when you abandon your ambitions that they become possible.

In a way Australia is like Catholicism. The company is sometimes questionable and the landscape is grotesque. But you always come back.

The list is an absolute good. The list is life. All round its cramped margins lies the gulf.

If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

As we know life in ourselves we want to understand life in the universe in order to enter into harmony with it.

Editing one’s writing is as easy as lighting a match while riding a bicycle.

There is no corner too quiet, or too far away, for a woman to make sorrow in it.

Hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves so that He who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally.

I learned how difficult it is to self-publish a book. It's complex, it's confusing, it's idiosyncratic.

You, our youth of today, are among the most illustrious spirits to be born into mortality in any age of the world. Yours is a noble heritage and a wonderful opportunity.

When you're playing someone who has a strong ego about themselves, you can't play them when you have the opposite opinion of the one they have of themselves.

One kind kiss before we part, Drop a tear and bid adieu; Though we sever, my fond heart Till we meet shall pant for you.

Never break your putter and your driver in the same round or you're dead.