The great task of statesmanship is to apply past lessons to new situations, to draw correct analogies to understand and act upon present forces, to recognise the need for change.

Reconciliation requires changes of heart and spirit, as well as social and economic change. It requires symbolic as well as practical action.

Life wasn't meant to be easy.

We are lagging far behind comparable countries in overcoming the disadvantages Indigenous people face.

Solutions will not be found while Indigenous people are treated as victims for whom someone else must find solutions.

We are seeing healing among the stolen generations, and initiatives which are enabling Indigenous people to make their distinctive contribution to our national life.

There are no quick fixes to Indigenous poverty and social disaster.

Yet there are thousands of Indigenous people searching for family members.

He (Gorton) is not fit to hold the great office of Prime Minister.

I think the climate is too important to say we are going to wait until all our economic woes are over before we act effectively.

I want to catch Mr Whitlam with his pants down.

When you are silent on the truth, you have given a transport fare for the lie to travel and spread fast.

When we see people as losers, we treat them with contempt. When we see them as lost, we treat them with compassion.

Heaven must be a Kentucky kind of place.

I still consider myself a consumer of music more than anything else.

No one nor anything can silence me.

It's really hard to get to know me, or any candidate. And I would be asked questions like, well, why are you really running for president?

According to CNN, Donald Rumsfeld said the war in Iraq did not go according to plan. And President Bush said, 'What? We had a plan?'

I like being moved. I don't like being pushed.

Levi is one of the best authors I've ever read. It's hard not to have an immediate personal response to his work. He has such a quiet tone.

I don't want to say that the creativity would give out - I can't imagine what argument I would bring forward for that. But I think that there's something on the individual level that's a limitation.